


Living a Double Life

by Spreevain



Category: Hunter X Hunter
Genre: Dark Continent Arc, F/M, Little bit of fluff thrown in here and there, Non-Canon Story, Slow Burn, canon character death, canon to a certain point, more action than anything, not much for romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:59:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24355456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spreevain/pseuds/Spreevain
Summary: Being a 1-Star Professional History Hunter at the age of 26 can be stressful. Especially when you have to hide the fact that you're friends with spiders, as in the infamous Phantom Troupe. Lily Amber has kept this secret for the past 12 years, ever since she became a hunter. In the present day, there has been an announcement that a ship carrying 200,000 passengers is going to the dark continent. Lily strikes at this chance to be one of the passengers on that ship so that she can get a chance to explore the dark continent and all of its rich history, but just the voyage may turn out to be a deadly one and will she even be able to keep her secret?
Relationships: Feitan (Hunter X Hunter)/Original Female Character(s), Feitan (Hunter x Hunter)/Original Character(s), Kuroro Lucifer | Chrollo Lucifer/Original Character(s), Kuroro Lucifer | Chrollo Lucifer/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26





	1. When opportunity strikes

Lily Amber; Age 26; 1-Star Professional History Hunter. She scours the known continents in search of items and lore of the past, including anything that has a connection to the Dark Continent.

Lily is currently at the Parasta airport waiting on a flight that heads back to Meteor City, the place she calls home, when she heard the news on a nearby tv:

“Emperor Nasubi Hui Guo Rou of the Kakin Empire has just announced that there will be an expedition to the Dark Continent. Beyond Netero himself is inviting everyone to Kakin to gather on the Black Whale No.1. The Black Whale No. 1 is a gigantic ship that will be carrying 200,000 people to the Dark Continent. The Emperor has declared that there will be 20 more ships built in the span of a year and will send 100,000,000 people to the Dark Continent within five years.”

“He's doing what now!?” Lily yells out loud in the airport and, unbeknownst to her, every head turns her way. Lily pulls out her phone as fast as she can and hits the #0 on her speed dial. The person on the other line picked the phone up after one ring.

“Did you hear!?”

“Lily, you're going to have to be a little more specific. You know I hear a lot of things. Also, don't yell in my ear.”

“Oh. Yeah, sorry Chrollo. I was talking about the expedition to the Dark Continent.” Lily Amber, Pro-hunter and Chrollo Lucilfer's childhood friend, answers in an apologetic voice.

“No. I didn't hear. I was a bit tied up. But I'm not really interested in going to the Dark Continent. There isn't any treasure there that I know of that's worth stealing.”

“Sure, there might not be any on the Dark Continent, but the Emperor of Kakin himself announced that he's going to be one of the 200,000 people aboard the ship that is going to the Dark Continent. Which means that the whole royal family and a whole bunch of VIPs are going to be aboard. Which also means plenty of things worth stealing, right?”

“Now that, has piqued my interest. Gather some more information about it before I tell the others. I want to confirm who is going to be onboard and what kind of treasure it is and if it's worth my time.”

“All right. I already have a few ideas of where to get some information. It's going to take a few months or so, though. I'll get back to you in July.” Lily hangs up her phone and heads to the ticket counter to change her destination. After hearing about the expedition to the Dark Continent, Lily believes that going to the Hunter Association is of the utmost importance right now so that she can report what she found in a small village in the Republic of Padokea, where she just finished a mission.

... _At the Association_ … 

  
  


Lily heads to the top of the building where the most direct line to getting information is, from the Vice-President, Pariston. Lily loves to play games just as much as Pariston does and so she knows that he will always have any kind of information that she needs when she needs it. Pariston is always more willing to give out information, especially because he always makes sure it benefits him in the end. That's why Lily chooses to go straight to Pariston instead of Cheadle, who is more than likely to tell Lily that she will get whatever information is posted on the hunter website, which at this point isn't much. As Lily walks toward Pariston's desk Beans stops her.

“Sorry, Lily! Pariston isn't here. I can't talk right now. I have important information that the Zodiacs need to hear right this instant.”

“Uh, okay! I'll just wait right here until you're done!” Lily yells out to Beans. She goes into Pariston's office and sits in his chair and props up her feet on his desk. She shoots a text to Pariston.

“You in the Zodiacs meeting? You're not in your office—nah scratch that. He'll just exploit me if I say that. Uhhh—hmmm—ah! Got it! Heheh.” And Lily sends the following text:

_Lily: Hey Rat! I'm ready to play another one of your games._

Lily gets an immediate reply back:

_Pariston: Oh, You don't know? If you don't know then you can't play my game._

“Shit. What the hell is it that I'm supposed to know?” After Lily says her thoughts out loud Beans walks in.

“Lily, there's something you should know.” Lily raises her eyebrows at this.

“Really? Well, how convenient. What is it, Beans?”

“Well, since the remaining zodiacs have been told, it should be fine if I tell you now. The information will go live within a week or so anyway. Pariston and Ging have resigned as Zodiacs.” Lily's eyes went wide and her mouth dropped, then she stood abruptly, slamming her hands on the desk.

“They what?! Dammit. They're ten steps ahead of me. If I hadn't taken that job in that remote village I would already know all this…. Ah! So that's what he meant.” Lily pulls out her phone to text Pariston back:

_Lily: Just found out. You and Ging resigned as Zodiacs. You're not a literal rat anymore, just a proverbial one ;p_

Another immediate response:

_Pariston: Wow. You're really off your game. Are you sure you're up for playing one of my games?_

_Lily: Of course. I may have been out of commission for a few months, but I’m ready to get back on my game._

“Beans. I need to speak with Cheadle.”

“Um—as the director, Cheadle is very busy and can only be spoken to with an appointment.”

“Get me an appointment within the next five minutes then.” 

“But—“

“Beans. This is important. I found something in the village I was staying at and it's related to the Dark Continent, so please, get me an appointment now.”

“Yes! I will go tell her you are here.”

Pariston replied:

_Then come to the coordinates I send you. Oh! And the only condition for playing this game is that you have to play for free._

The coordinates come in immediately. It looks like they're in some kind of place deep in the outskirts of a city.

_Lily: That place looks sketchy, but I guess I shouldn't put it past you. And do you mean free as in I don't get any information?_

_Pariston: You'll know when you get here._

Beans comes back.

“Director Cheadle is ready to see you now.”

“Thanks.” Lily walks to Cheadle's office

“After I became Director I was able to see that you were on a top secret mission in a remote village in Padokea. You are here to disclose your findings, right Lily?”

“Yes. It's of the utmost urgency that I come straight here and immediately report them. The request initially came from Ging. He told former Director Netero about it and then he suggested that I take the job because I am one of the only people suitable enough for it besides Ging and apparently Ging was working on something else when he came across it. I tried to ask Netero for the details but the only thing he knew was that it was from Ging and that he needed somebody to check it out right away. Then I tried asking Ging about it and all he said was that you'll know when you see it. Anyway, my main objective was to observe this tiny, extremely remote village in Northern Padokea.”

“Is this a village that is known, Lily?”

“No. By extremely remote I mean it's literally impossible to find using any normal means. Ging told me that he had stumbled upon it while on his mission, but I honestly think that's bull crap because there's no way anybody could just stumble upon it. But then again, Ging always defies logic. It took me about eight hours to actually find this place once I got to the coordinates I was given. If it was any normal hunter it would probably take them days if not weeks or months to find it and if it was any normal human, well forget it, no normal human would ever be able to find it.”

“So, how did you find it, Lily?"

“I had to use nen, but you can't see the place with normal gyo. And it's not like the place is invisible it's just surrounded by a lot. There's a specific path that you have to take to get there and just walking on the path takes about five hours. The distance to it isn't long at all; it's only a few meters from the coordinates that I was provided with, but the village is surrounded by several protective barriers that confuses the mind and redirects unwanted visitors.”

“If they were that protective of their village, then why were you accepted there? You were there for months, right Lily?”

“Yes, well, that's the thing. When I finally got through their barrier they were incredibly surprised to see an outsider. They were more curious than they were scared or hostile. When I tried to communicate with them to ask them who was in charge so that I could speak with them and let them know I’m just there to observe they became even more curious and more of them gathered around me until someone who looked like they were in charge came up and dispersed everyone. He tried talking to me, but I couldn't understand a thing he said. They speak in a language that has not been found in this world yet.”

“Out of over 200 found languages they don't speak any of them? Are you sure Lily?”

“Yes. This is where I get to the part about the Dark Continent. I was able to pick up their language fairly quickly because it's similar to those that I do know. They also have a writing system that I immediately recognized, the Divine Script. This also helped me in learning their language. Throughout the few months I was there I got to know a lot about their history as well. They have many stories passed down through word of mouth and even some written down. They are all about the Dark Continent. Many of them talk about long ago when humans used to live on the Dark Continent and about why we moved to the islands of lake mobius. I have already sent you extremely detailed reports through Q. I came in today to make sure that you got this report because I had heard about the expedition to the Dark Continent and I thought this report would be important in any decisions you make.”

“Yes, it is very important. Thank you. I will be sure to read it all within the next few days. Is there anything else I need to know right now, Lily?”

“Nothing from my report, but I was just wondering how the Association was going to handle this expedition. Are you going to propose that Hunters need to go along as well?”

“We are still working on that. Your expertise on the Dark Continent and this new language will be a great help for us, so I will keep you in the loop, Lily.”

“Thank you.” Lily turns, about to head out of the office when Cheadle stops her.

“Wait. One last thing, Lily.” She turns back around.

“Yes?”

“Why is it that you, a one star hunter, were given a top secret mission, Lily?”

“Huh? I already told you, former Director Netero gave me the job because I was the second most capable person for it and the first most capable person was Ging who was already busy with another mission.”

“Yes, but the only information I have ever been able to find on you is that you are a one star history hunter. I have no information on where you are from, what your abilities are, what you are proficient at, or what missions you have been on to even gain a star. This kind of secrecy is usually only for the Zodiacs or hunters who have two stars or more, so I ask again, why were you given a top secret mission, Lily?”

“Hmmm where do I start. When I was taking the hunter exam former Director Netero noticed that I have a knack for gathering and exploiting information. He also took notice of my nen abilities and became intrigued. Before the final round of the exam he approached me with a proposition saying that if I defeated everyone that I could become a hunter and work directly under him with unfettered access to any information that I wanted. The offer was something that I definitely would have taken up but I had entered the exam with a friend and asked the director if he could create a second open spot that year. I suggested that if both my friend and I were the only two to pass then I would take his offer. Of course both of us passed and I became Director Netero's disciple. Under his tutelage he trained me to become a spy for him. We made a contract that said I would become an information hunter under the guise of being a history hunter. This was because of the connotation it leaves. Being a history hunter is widely accepted in most countries and even most private facilities. Ah! Actually, that reminds me.”

Lily walks up to Cheadle's desk and kneels on the floor. She sticks her hand under the lowest desk drawer to hit a button and a tiny door pops open in the picture that is hung behind Cheadle's desk, the one that the former Director Netero kept there. Lily goes up to it and puts in a nine digit code that then opens another door on the side of Cheadle's computer, that used to be the former director's.

“Phew. Good thing you didn't replace anything in here.”

“That is because former Director Netero left strict instructions saying not to replace anything, Lily.”

“Heh. Of course he did. Director Cheadle, what I'm about to show you is extremely important and top secret. Former Director Netero told me to only show it to the next Director if I trusted them, but here's the thing, I never completely trust anybody. I do know that you are incredibly smart and I trust your judgement, so I'm going to share this with you. I was told that it can only be seen once. Apparently former Director Netero put a nen inscription on it so that once it is opened and closed then it can never be opened again. Would you like me to show it to you? I believe it is my contract and possibly all the information that is on me.”

“If that is true, then are you sure you trust me enough to not tell a soul what is in here, Lily?”

“To be honest, I don't care what you do with this information, but I trust that you'll make the right judgement.”

“Alright. Show me, Lily.”

Lily puts her finger up to the nen inscription and imbues it with her nen. A folder pops up on the computer along with a timer that starts to count down from 24 hours.

“Huh? A timer?” Cheadle asks, a little panicked.

“I believe that means you only have 24 hours to look through everything in that folder before it disappears.” Cheadle goes to open the folder and finds over 100 files in there. 

"Look there. The first two files seem like the most important for now,” Lily says as she points to the first two files. One says contract and the other says background information. Cheadle opens the contract and reads through it.

“It says that you are contracted to the Director. It doesn't specify who. I believe that also means your contract continues, Lily.” Lily looks at the contract closer.

“Ah! You're right! That sneaky old man. I didn't even notice that when I signed it.”

“If you do not wish to continue, it also says that I have the right to terminate the contract, Lily.”

“Nah. It's fine. If you want me to spy for you I’ll gladly do it. I have a lot of fun doing it.”

“Alright. It looks like there is a place for me to sign as well.” Cheadle signs the contract by imbuing her nen in it. She then goes to the second file, background information. She opens it and they both read through it.

“What, is this? What does this mean, Lily?” Cheadle backs up taking up a defensive stance.

“Wait hold up, Director Cheadle. It's not what it seems! I mean. It's true, but…,” Lily puts up her hands and then glances at the computer again, “I can't believe he knew. I had no idea. If I knew that was in there I probably would have been a little more hesitant to show you.”

“Is it true, Lily?”

“It's complicated. It's not a lie, but it's not the full truth,” Lily takes off the black glove on her right hand as she hangs her head and shows Cheadle the back of her hand where she has a twelve-legged spider tattoo with the number thirteen in the middle of it, “but… yeah. I guess you could say I’m a spider.”

“I—“

“But, Director Cheadle!” Lily yells out as she puts her glove back on, “You already signed the contract. You're sworn to secrecy. That means absolutely everything in there, you can't tell anybody. And I would really appreciate it if you didn't ask me about it anymore. I'll tell you a little bit about it, but only if you promise to keep it secret and never mention it again.” Cheadle takes a minute to think it over.

“You are right. I did sign the contract. The former Director really is sneaky, putting that contract first before your background information. I promise to not tell a soul, but only if this information does not hinder the Association in any way. Will it hinder the Association in any way, Lily?”

“No. It shouldn't. And if, in the future, it is a hindrance, then I will leave the Association and give up being a Hunter.”

“Alright then. Proceed with your story, Lily."

“Everything in that file is completely true. I was born and raised in Meteor City. I have no clue who my parents are. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always known how to use nen. That made a lot of people take interest in me and caused me a lot of trouble. The founding members of the Phantom Troupe and I grew up together in Meteor City. Actually, I suppose you could call me a founding member as well. We were always close, like a family, one that we made for ourselves in that waste land where the concept doesn't even exist. You see, the only way to survive in meteor city was to become strong because only the strong survive, well that and the clever. Because we were just kids we weren't that strong so we had to be smart to survive in a world of adults and so we took to stealing to survive. We got so good at it that after only a year we never got caught again. When I was ten I heard stories about hunters and how they got to explore the world. The others were intrigued by the stories too, but only about the traveling the world part and getting to see things normal people didn't. When I was 14 I decided that I was gonna go out and become a hunter so that I could explore the world, but everyone else said that they didn't want to be tied down by some hierarchy and so they formed the Phantom Troupe, a place where there is no hierarchy and you're free to do whatever you want. I still consider them family and so that's why I took an oath and got a tattoo. I won't lie. I do occasionally help them on some jobs. Despite not sticking around and becoming a hunter, they still accept me. It's just our way. That's about it. The Spiders aren't a threat to the Association, so can you just let it slide?” 

“That… was actually kind of touching. Not much is known about the Phantom Troupe, but I suppose you are right, they aren't a threat to the Association, currently. I will dismiss this knowledge so long as they continue not to be a threat, Lily.”

“Thank you Director Cheadle!”

“Now. I have less than 24 hours to read all of this. I must get to it right away, but one last thing. Since we have a contract now, I want to send you on your first mission for me. I want you to spy on Pariston Hill for me. I believe he is scheming something. I want you to report back to me on August 1st, Lily.”

“Spy on Pariston? Well, that's easy. He just sent me his coordinates. I was gonna head over there right now anyway.”

“He what? I didn't know that the two of you were close. Will this hinder your mission, Lily?”

“Oh, no way. Pariston and I aren't friends. The former Director was pretty thorough in his report on me. I'm sure if you keep reading you'll find that I often partake in Pariston and Ging's games, separately of course. I absolutely refuse to get in between the two of them, even though Pariston is constantly trying to get me to. I would be glad to spy on both of them for you.”

“That would be helpful. Thank you, Lily.” Lily turns and heads out of Cheadle's office and straight for the coordinates that Pariston sent her.


	2. The Game Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Lily gets to the coordinates Pariston sent her, she joins in on his game

As soon as Lily gets to the city of where the coordinates are she goes into In. Lily walks through several alley ways on her way to the coordinates that Pariston sent her. The coordinates lead to someplace deep in the outskirts of a city. Lily gets to the coordinates and uses her gyo to see if there are any traps set. You can never be too cautious with Pariston. She walks in and can hear a conversation taking place. Lily peeks around the corner to see several people in the room including Ging, who is standing trying to convince people to take his money for some reason, and Pariston, who is sitting on a couch watching all this unfold. Lily steps back. She puts her two index fingers together, pointing out in front of her and draws the shape of a rectangle with them.

“Doorway through space.” She whispers as a door appears in front of her.

**_Doorway Through Space:_** _This is an ability of Lily's that allows her to create a doorway to any place that she has seen or has a connection with via nen. The door that she enters through is visible to all nen users, but the door that she exits through is visible to no one._

Lily suddenly pops up behind Pariston and jumps over the back of the couch to sit next to him.

“Lily, nice of you to show up. Are you ready to play my game?”

“Damn, I can never surprise you, can I?”

“On the contrary, I was very surprised when you suddenly sat down next to me, seemingly out of thin air. You must have been using In ever since you reached the city, right?” It is only now that Lily releases her In. 

“Ah! Lily! You're here! About time. Listen to this, no one will take my money!” Ging was the first to realize that Lily was there. It was only after Ging said something that everyone looked her way and became startled. Several shouts of “what?”, “impossible!”, “when did she get her?” And “how did she get inside here?” Were heard around the room.

“What do you mean, about time? Pariston, did you tell Ging I was coming? That's cheating.”

“Everyone, this is my friend, Lily. And from today onward she will be a part of our team,” Pariston explains to everyone.

“Huh? Did you just ignore me? Pariston, when did I become your friend? I know for a fact I don't consider you a friend. At best we're rivals, at worst we're mortal enemies. Anyway, what do you mean I’m a part of the team? Are you going to explain any of this to me or do I just gotta go with it?” Pariston just smiles at Lily.

“The name of the game is hide n’ seek.”

“Damn. I should have known as soon as you sent those coordinates without telling me a damn thing. Oh well. I'm a bit rusty so this is a great game to help get back into it. Ging! Name of the game?”

“Hmm… Negotiate.”

“Damn. You guys are really harsh, you know, but whatever. Okay! Listen up everyone, from today forward I'm part of your team. I don't want any fancy titles or anything, I’m solely here just to be a pawn, so if you have any requests for me I’ll take them at any time.” There is a lot of muttering going around. Lily catches some words. She hears the words Beyond Netero, Dark Continent, expedition team, and mediators. That was all Lily needed to hear. She understood completely why she was there and what she needed to do. Lily puts her hand on Pariston's shoulder.

“Tag, you're it.”

“Huh? Already? I thought you said you were rusty?”

“I am. I also know that you were just testing me to see if I should really be a part of this mission. I know that every time we play hide n’ seek that there is a time frame of an hour and that you'll discontinue the actual game if I can't tag out. So, I tagged out. I would really love to play the long game with you Pariston, but I’m eventually going to have to take a break in between for another mission of mine.”

“That's fine. The real game doesn't start until we get to the Dark Continent, after all.”

“I'll stay for about a month to help Ging and then I'll have to leave, but you'll send me updates on anything that happens after that, right?”

“Help him? Aren't you playing a game?”

“The name of the game is negotiation. Usually whenever he wants to play that it's actually just him asking for help. Anyway, you will send updates, right?”

“Hmmm… even Ging asks for help? I didn’t know that.”

“Pariston. Updates. You'll send them, right?”

“You're quite persistent.” Lily glares at Pariston, just about fed up with his shit.

“Fine. I'll only send any updates if it's absolutely detrimental to the mission for after we land on the Dark Continent.” Lily heaves a big sigh.

“I wouldn't expect anything more from you.” Lily stands up and stretches.

“Alright Ging! I'm ready to play your game!”

  
  


_ One Month Later…  _

  
  


Lily comes into the common room and sees Ging and a few others playing pip play. 

“Oh, Lily! Come here! Look how horrible these guys are at pip play!” Lily walks over and sees that Ging has created several wart sized balls of nen all over his hands and is moving them around while the other guys barely even have a couple of pips created. 

“Wow. They really do suck. Aren't you all specialists? Shouldn't you have full control over your nen?”

“Huh? Let me see you do better then! Are you even a specialist to begin with?” Says Usamen, one of the other team members who is sitting off to the side looking defeated.

“Of course I’m a specialist. See?” Lily flares up her nen some and creates several hundred pips all over her body. They all move in different directions and climb over each other. The rest of the team members in the room stop what they are doing to stare in astonishment.

“It's not like it actually does anything for you though. It’s nothing more than a neat little trick, like being able to spin a pen on your hand,” Ging laughs.

“But that's why it's cool!” Usamen shouts back at Ging.

“Actually, pip play is how I learned how to control my nen abilities. It's the only reason why I’m able to use several nen abilities at once. I can also get away with looking like a normal person who doesn't know any nen because I have that much control over it.” They all continue to stare in astonishment at Lily and then most of them look down at their hands to play with the pips.

“Oh? You know, Lily, you've never proved to me before that you're a specialist,” questions Pariston.

“Is that you asking for a hint about my ability, Pariston?”

“Of course not. It's just that, after ten years of knowing each other and playing games together, I've never seen you use your ability once. I mean, just the fact that I don't know your ability after all this time is why I trust that you're as strong as what your nen gives off, but I'm sure once we get to the Dark Continent that not knowing each other's abilities will become a hindrance.”

“Hmmm. I guess that's true, but I would never let anybody know every single detail about my ability. I guess I can give you a hint at what my ability is, so that I'm not hindering anybody,” at this, everyone stops what they're doing and looks at Lily with intrigue, “I have the ability to control time and space.” Everyone looks at Lily in astonishment and skepticism.

“What!? That's impossible! Nobody can control time  _ and _ space! That's basically playing god!,” shouts Usamen, clearly skeptical of her ability.

“You're absolutely right. It does kinda feel like I am a god. It's a lot of fun, too. And You're also right that it would be impossible, under normal circumstances that is. I've been able to use nen ever since I can remember and I developed this hatsu when I was ten, but for it to actually work I had to create about nine sub-hatsu with about 35 different conditions in total. It took me about four years to create and master all of the sub-hatsu I have and to make myself akin to a god.” Lily smirks as everyone gives her blank stares, like their brains just exploded.

“Really? Even I didn't know that about you. I thought you only had the one hatsu,” says Ging.

“The one hatsu? Hmm. Oh! That one! Yeah, that's a sub-hatsu and it might be difficult to use while on the Dark Continent, but as long as we have some time to rest and somebody can guard my body while I activate it, then it should be fine!”

“Oh? What do you mean by that?” Pariston asks.

“You'll know when we get there. For now it's not important. I'll explain more about my abilities when we get to the Dark Continent.”

After that, Ging goes to play a game on the TV, then another team member, Curly, approaches Ging asking to play a language game. Ging accepts and Lily jumps in to play too. They have to say words that start with N from the Ancient Kappe language. They go around several times, playing for about half an hour or so before Curly blanks and can't come up with a word. 

“Huh? That's it Curly? I've still got a billion more to go,” Says Ging as he's playing a video game on the TV.

“Yeah, are you really gonna let it end like that?” Asks Lily.

“No, it's fine! Here Ging, my account number! You can give me your money! I'm going to donate all of it to the educational system!” Says Curly.

“Aww man. I wanted to play some more.” Lily Says with a pout.

“That's alright, Lily. Why don't you teach me that new language you discovered instead.” As Ging says this Curly turns back around with intrigue, Pariston perks up, as well as everyone else in the room as they all turn to look at Lily with astonishment for the millionth time this past month.

“Yeah, sure. It's not that hard. It only took me a week to learn most of it.”

"Wait, a week!? It took me a week just to learn the basics. How did you learn it all in a week?” Ging stayed in that tiny remote village in Padokea for two weeks before giving the request to former Director Netero and apparently he could only learn the basics.

“Eh? Ah! That's cuz it's extremely similar to a friend of mine's native tongue. There were only a few differences in the way words were said and the sentence structure. I basically already knew the basics. I just had to change some things around and learn all the complex stuff.”

“Was your friend from that village?”

“No. He was born and raised in Meteor City, but we get all kinds of people who come through there, so I suppose it's possible that his family had left the village to settle elsewhere. Though, when I met him he was an orphan without any family. He said he never had any parents or anything like that and that he just kinda knew the language, like it was already imbued in him from birth or something.”

“Huh. You certainly never cease to amaze me.” Once Ging says this, a group of people walk in. They announce that they failed in getting provisional hunters licenses for the upcoming expedition to the Dark Continent. Pariston introduces the head of the group as Muherr. Muherr then goes on to say that they initially passed the background checks, but failed the interview questions. He says that the Zodiac that took Pariston's place must be a mind reader and probably knows all of their plans now.

“That's alright. It's not like we had any plans anyway.” Says Pariston with a smirk on his face.

“Oh. You mean Kurapika? He's harmless, but definitely makes an excellent replacement to Pariston. Don't worry, his abilities don't include mind reading. He doesn't know anything. It's more like a truth seeking ability. If you were lying or had any malicious intent when you spoke then that's why you failed.” Lily says casually from her place on the couch as she looks at her phone.

“Huh? Who are you? Also,” Muherr points to Ging, “who are you?”

“I'm your new #2, just accept me as #2 and take my money.”

“Huh?! Who do you think you are to be offering money for the #2 position. I can't trust that or you.” Muherr's men take a stance in front of Ging and Pariston and give them a choice to pick who is going to be #2 and who is going to leave. They give the choice to Lily too, who looks completely uninterested. Ging and Pariston then give them their own choices and the men settle on a fifth choice of killing Ging, Pariston, and Lily. They then open fire on the three of them. Some of the team members try to stop them saying they are going too far and ask if they are actually trying to kill them. Ging and Pariston run down the hall as five men follow them. Lily, completely unfazed, is still sitting on the couch looking at her phone as two men stayed behind to shoot at her. When the two men saw that they weren't hitting her they lowered their guns to their side and stared at her in astonishment.

“W-were you using Ken just now?” Muherr asks.

“Yup. Those two are complete idiots for running away from something that weak.”  _ Ahahaha. Actually, that's a total lie. I was just going with the flow and agreed to what he just said. In actuality I probably could have deflected those nen bullets with Ken, but I didn't want to take any chances so I used one of my abilities, Freeze Frame. _

**_Freeze Frame:_ ** _ The ability to create a spherical barrier and anything within that barrier, or anything that tries to pass through, will freeze in time. Lily is the only one who is not affected by the ability. _

“How did you survive that?”

“Huh? Didn't you hear me? I just said I used Ken. And those nen bullets were weak. I sure hope you don't plan on having them go on the expedition with us. They'll never last.”

“They're the back-up reserves. But they're also highly trained soldiers. They should be able to break through Ken easily. Which means you have to have used an ability.”

**_In This Instance:_ ** _ Lily used a small version of Freeze Frame that just barely spanned 6 inches from her body. Freeze Frame only has the ability to freeze solid objects, but when nen is frozen inside of the barrier or tries to pass through it, it dissipates. This is why the nen bullets did not freeze in the air and it looked like Lily was using her Ken to guard against the nen bullets. When her Freeze Frame is as small as she made it this time around, it really does look just like normal Ken. _

“I knew it. That was bad acting to begin with. Geez. I hate when Pariston goes that far. It's really annoying. I didn't use an ability. It really was just my Ken. I have a friend who can shoot stronger nen bullets than that. I've trained for years against them, that's why your soldier's bullets couldn't break through.” As Lily finishes, Pariston and Ging come back. Ging goes on to talk to Muherr on the side while Pariston makes a call. After a bit they all come back to the common room.

“So, Muherr, what was her ability?” Pariston asks.

“She didn't use one. Said it was her Ken. I was using Gyo at the time and can confirm that, even though I was skeptical that someone’s Ken could be that strong.”

“Of course. It's one of the reason's she's here. If she wasn't that strong I never would have invited her. Also, Ging, I'll send you a list of account numbers. You're free to transfer your money to all the remaining team members. Good luck being #2.”

“Ah! That means game over, Ging! Alright, peace out you guys! I’ll see you all on the Dark Continent! I have some personal business to attend to until then!” Lily walks out with a wave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if you guys didn't understand something. I've been trying to explain things in a way for those of you who don't read the manga, but if you still don't understand something I suggest going to the leaving a comment or going to the Hunter X Hunter Wiki Page


	3. Check, check, check and uhhhh almost check?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily is all over the place today. From the airport to Kakin, in Kakin she stays at a hotel then goes shopping, later she goes to a nightclub only to be brought back to the same hotel she is staying at, but not to her room.

“Alright, become buddy buddy with the Association to gain free information, check; play Pariston's game to gain free information, check; gain information on who and what is going to be on board the Black Whale, check; gain access to the first deck where all the treasures are, uhhhh almost check?” Lily thinks out loud as she sits on a swing in a park getting very obvious stares from children and adults alike as she stares up at the sky. Lily has been sitting on this same swing for the past hour and is thoroughly stumped on how to gain access to the first deck where only very very important people have access to, as in the royal family and government officials. Lily pulls out her phone to call the only person in the world who could possibly help her find a way to gain access to the first deck, a spider.

“Hey, Lily! Long time no hear, yeah?”

“Hey Shal! Yeah, sorry about that. I was in a really remote village and was basically living under a rock for a few months, that's why.”

“Oh. Well, welcome back to the land of technology!”

“Yeah, that's actually why I'm calling you. I need your help with something, but don't tell Chrollo. He said I was supposed to gain as much information as possible and then he would determine if we should take the job or not before telling you guys, but I already have all the information I need and I know he's definitely going to take the job, so I just need your help in getting the last piece that will help make this job 100 times easier.”

“Alright, I can do that. What do you need my help with?”

“I'm trying to gain access to the first deck on the Black Whale, the ship that's going on that expedition to the Dark Continent, but I'm not really sure how I can gain access without it looking suspicious. Only the royal family, government officials and their families, and bodyguards get access to the first deck.”

“Well, that's simple. Just go in as a bodyguard.”

“I already thought about that, but that won't give me access to much and I won't be free to move around if I'm guarding someone.”

“Well, it seems like being a bodyguard is your best chance. Send me a list of the passengers on the first deck and give me a couple of hours. Somebody is bound to have ties to the underworld. Then you can blackmail them into having you as a bodyguard but let you have free reign of the place.”

“Uh, thanks Shal. I'll send that to you right away, but I'm not gonna blackmail someone. I'll just use the fact that I’m a spider as leverage and ask for a give or take relationship where they either give us their valuables or we take them.”

“You know, sometimes I believe you're a lot darker than I am, Lily.”

“Heh. It's been a couple of years since I've done a job as a spider. I'm just getting excited, that's all.”

“I can't wait. It'll be like old times. Well, I'll type up a list of who's connected to the underworld, so send me that passenger list ASAP, Alright?”

“Alright, talk to you in a few, Shal.” Lily hangs up the phone and sends the list of first deck passengers to Shalnark. Lily then heads to the airport to await instructions from Shalnark.

  
  


_ …At the airport…  _

  
  


Lily goes to the coffee shop in the airport and orders a large mocha coffee and a scone. While waiting for her order she sees a familiar kid with white hair and blue eyes get in line with a smaller, unfamiliar kid.

“Large Mocha and a scone!”

“That's me!” Lily says as she walks up to the counter to get her coffee and scone. As she turns around to go find somewhere to sit, the two kids walk by her.

“Hey, Killua!” Lily yells out to them and Killua flinches as he tries to walk by Lily with his head down and hands in his pocket. Killua even went so far as to go into In to avoid any confrontation with Lily. Killua continues walking, pretending he didn't hear Lily and goes to sit at an empty table. Lily follows him and sits across from Killua.

“Hey, are you avoiding me? Come on Killua, and here I was just trying to be nice by saying hi. The least you could do is introduce me to your little friend.”

“Big brother, who is she?” The smaller kid whispers to Killua, grabbing his arm and trying to hide behind him.

“Just a stranger, Alluka. You shouldn't talk to strangers, they're bad news.” Killua turns his nose up and away from Lily.

“Aw man, that's harsh Killua. After all we've been through, I'm not a stranger, now am I?” Complete silence from Killua.

“Medium strawberry frappé, medium mocha frappé, and two slices of pound cake!” Killua and Alluka get up to get their order and return to their seats.

“Sooo you still haven’t introduced me,” Lily extends her hand toward Alluka, “hello there. My name's Lily. I'm a friend of Killua's.” Alluka stares at Lily as she sips on her strawberry frappé. Then she slowly extends her hand to shake Lily's.

“Alluka,” she whispers and quickly takes her hand back using it to take a bite of her pound cake.

“Ah, so cute. Is she your sister, Killua?”

“Yeah,” Killua says quietly as he looks out the window at the airships and sips on his mocha.

“Where are you two headed?” Lily takes a bite of her scone.

“What, did my brother ask you to spy on us?” Killua then turns to glare at Lily.

“No. I haven't been in contact with Illumi in months. Up until a month ago I was in a remote village in Padokea and had no contact with the outside world for months. I was just genuinely curious about my little spy-in-training, that's all!” Lily gives Killua a big toothy grin.

“Huh!? I never said that I would be your student! Don't go spouting nonsense!”

“Aww, Come on, Killua! Please! I'd love the opportunity to train you as a spy. You already have the basics down. You would make a really great one! Plus you would be helping me in getting that second star that I can't get until I get my very own student and teach them the ropes of my own craft! Pleeeeaase Killuaaaa!” Lily claps her hands together, begging Killua.

“For the hundredth time. No! I don't want to be your student! I'm busy trying to live my life the way I want to live it. Go ask someone else already. You're way too persistent.”

“That's cause you would make the best spy in history!”

“Nope. Not doing it.”

“Alluka, dear. Don't you think your big bro would make a really cool spy?” Killua's eyes go wide.

“Don't go getting my sister involved in your scheme!” Alluka pulls away from her frappé and looks at Lily earnestly.

“Of course! If anyone can do it, it's big brother Killua!” Killua opens his mouth and lets it hang there, looking defeated. Lily smiles at Killua.

“See! Even Alluka agrees you should become my student.”

“Yeah, well it's not happening. Not right now, anyways. Alluka and I are on a journey.”

“A journey? Where you headed?”

“I'm taking Alluka to see the world. I'm showing her what it's like to be free.”

“Free, huh.” Killua looks at his watch.

“Sorry, but we have to go. Our flight is going to board any minute now. Maybe when I'm done showing Alluka the world, I’ll think about your offer.” The three of them wave goodbye. As Lily finishes her coffee and scone her phone rings. Lily picks up the phone.

“Shal! What do you got for me?” Lily says as she gets up to throw out her trash.

“Kakin is a crazily corrupt country.” Lily heads toward the ticket booths.

“Wow. You never cease to amaze me with the words that come out of your mouth, but that's why we're best friends, right? So, how corrupt are we talking?”

“We're talking like, nearly the entire first deck.” Lily whistles.

“So? Who’s my best chance?”

“Well, to get the closest to the best kind of treasure, I would say one of the three princes of Kakin that have underground ties.” Lily whistles again, clearly astonished at how corrupt the country really is.

“There's three princes that have ties to the underground? That really is a crazy amount of corrupt.”

“Not just ties. The three of them are benefactors to their own gangs.”

“Damn. Well, knowing you, you already did the necessary research. So, who do you think will be the easiest to persuade?”

“Of course I did, otherwise I wouldn't have called you yet. Well, the third prince of Kakin, Zhang Lei Hui Guo Rou, is the benefactor of the Xi-Yu Family and I don't believe he will be easy to persuade. He is the type of person who is open to negotiations, but if it doesn't benefit him by helping him succeed the throne, then he won't agree to it. Which means he would easily take you on as a bodyguard, but he most likely won't give you free reign. Then there's the seventh prince of Kakin, Luzurus Hui Guo Rou, who is the benefactor of the Cha-R family. I don't think you would want to try to be his bodyguard. He's known to have dealings in drugs and I know how you don't like to be near the stuff.”

“Yeah, makes sense. Thanks Shal. So, does that mean that the last prince that's involved in a gang is my best bet?”

“Honestly, I'm not really sure about this one, Lily. I think he might be too dangerous. I mean, he seems like a normal human, so I know you could take him in a fight, but he just gives off bad vibes.”

“It’ll be fine, Shal. So, who is he?”

“The fourth prince of Kakin, Tserriednich Hui Guo Rou. He's the benefactor of the Heil-Ly family. He has an interest in art and they say he's a genius. But, that's just what's on the surface. If you dig deep into the dark web you can find all kinds of things. I found that he collects body parts and that, for entertainment, he has his subordinate find two beautiful women in a club and bring them to him for an intellectual conversation, but that's just the rumors. There isn't proof that the women ever make it out alive, but I’ve seen video footage of them going to the hotel rooms that he stays at. I'm pretty sure this guy is a sociopath, Lily. Maybe you should just try the drugee instead.”

“Heeeeh. So he's an intellectual sociopath. Just my type, then. You know I’m also an intellect, right? All I need to do is have an intellectual conversation with him and casually bring up that I'm a spider looking for a job, then offer up a deal that would serve a purpose for both of us. It'll be fine, Shal. Stop worrying. Just send me the details and I’ll hop on a flight right now. I'll let you know how it goes, alright?”

“Fine. But don't say I didn't warn you. Talk to you later, Lily.” And with that, Shalnark hung up. He texts Lily a few minutes later with the details of where Tserriednich is staying and which nightclub his subordinate is most likely to hit up for Tserriednich's entertainment. Lily gets a ticket to the closest city. Her flight leaves in half an hour and she’ll get there in about five hours. With nothing else to do before her flight boards and nothing to do on the flight, Lily takes out her headphones, so that she can listen to soundscapes, as she takes out her book and reads it.

_...In Kakin, at the airport… _

_ It's only about 7 p.m. That means I have a few hours before I should head to the nightclub. I think I'll get something light to eat and get a hotel room for the night. _

Lily hails a taxi outside the airport. She tells the taxi to go to a hotel that is owned by the Hui Guo Rou, the same one that the fourth prince Tserriednich is staying at, in case things don't go as planned at the nightclub. As Lily walks into the hotel she gets sneers and disgusted looks from the guests and shocked looks from the hotel workers. As she walks to the desk a desk attendant comes around and quickly comes over to her, trying to push her out of the hotel.

“I'm sorry ma'am, but we only serve the most distinguished customers as it costs $1,000 a night for just our smallest rooms. You will want to try another hotel, one that would be more toward your budget.” The desk attendant puts her hand on Lily's backpack, guiding her out the door. Lily looks down at the clothes she is wearing, black combat boots, black cargo pants, a white t-shirt, black gloves and her old olive green hiking backpack on her back.

_ Oh. Whoops. I never got a chance to go home and get more suitable clothes. I'm still wearing my hiking clothes and still have my hiking bag from when I was in Padokea. I never saw a reason for different clothes when I was hanging out with Pariston and them, but this mission definitely calls for completely different clothing. _

“Oh, I'm so sorry. It's alright, though. I won't have any problem paying for a room,” Lily stops in her tracks, turns toward the desk attendant and shows her her hunter's license, “you see, I'm a one-star pro-hunter. I was just on a mission and was immediately thrown into another one without the chance to go home to get a change of clothes.” This seems to have relieved the tension in the air only by a hair. The guests just went back to their own business as they grumbled about hunters not being sophisticated enough to stay at a place like this, even if they do have the power and money to do so.

“Oh. I apologize. I didn't realize. Well then, Miss, come this way and I will get you situated.” The desk attendant stepped back and bowed in apology. She led Lily to the check-in desks.

“What kind of room would you like and for how long, miss?”

“Something with a view and a really big bathtub, just for tonight. Is the presidential suite available?”

“I'm sorry, miss. It's taken, but the executive suite that is two sizes smaller is available and still has an excellent view and bathtub.”

“Two sizes smaller? What about the one that's only a size smaller than the presidential suite?”

“That would be the honeymoon suite. It's reserved specifically for couples.”

“Oh. Makes sense. And I'm definitely alone,” Lily said to herself, “Alright, I'll take the executive suite, then.”

“Okay. That will be $5,000 for one night in the executive suite.”

“Really? That's cheaper than I thought it would be.” Lily pulls out a black credit card and the desk attendant looks at it in astonishment.

“That's the legendary black card. I heard that there's only 100 of those in the world. I've never seen one before.” The desk attendant takes the card in her hands gingerly, as if it was the most fragile thing she had ever held.

“You've never seen one before, even though you work in a place like this? But I guess that makes sense since there's only 100 and they only gave them to the 100 most richest people in the world. That and 60 of those people are hunters. Hunters don't usually come to extravagant places like this. They would rather spend their money on information instead of a nice soft bed and a big bathtub.” The desk attendant hands Lily her card back with a room key.

“Wow, really? That sounds like a waste to me. Here is your room key. You will be in room 40.2 on floor 40.”

“Thanks,” as Lily turns around she catches herself, “Oh yeah! Hey, do you have any recommendations for stores that would sell clothes worthy of going to a nightclub in?”

“Nightclub?”

“Yeah, it's been a while since I've done anything normal, so I wanted to go out tonight before my job tomorrow. And the more expensive the better. I wanna dress to impress.”

“Oh! Well this entire sector of the city is known for being expensive. This street actually has the most expensive stores in the city, too. I would recommend Forever Young. It's about a block down the street if you take a right out of the hotel. They sell the most expensive young women's clothes in the city and they're so up to date with today's fashion that they rotate out their clothes every other day!”

“Wow. Thanks a lot! That's really helpful.” Lily turns back around and heads up to her room to drop off her bag. After that she then heads back down and heads to the recommended store, Forever Young.

Lily gets to the store and as she walks in she is stopped at the entrance by bodyguards.

_ Wow, this place must be really expensive if it even has body guards. _

“We don’t allow window shoppers in the store. You’ll have to go somewhere else.”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, I forgot,” Lily pulls out her hunter’s license and her black credit card and shows it to the body guards, “sorry, I just got off a job and didn’t have time to go home and change. I really am trying to buy something, though. So, if you could let me through…” The body guards look at her with astonishment, then at each other and back to Lily.

“Of course,” The body guards part and hold the doors open for Lily, “our apologies, Miss.” Lily chuckles at this.

“It’s fine. That’s not the first time that happened today.” Lily walks into the store and customers and employees stare at Lily wondering why the body guards would let someone dressed like she is inside the store. A young, timid, female employee walks up to Lily and whispers to her.

“I’m sorry miss, but you can’t be in here. What were the bodyguards thinking? You have to leave before the manager sees you.”

_ This girl must be new because she looks really scared and doesn’t know what to do with her hands or eyes. _

Just then, a man walks down the stairs from the second floor, shouting.

“Elise! What are you doing letting this window shopper in the store?” He gets to the bottom of the stairs and walks over to Lily with the intention of throwing her out. When he gets to her, Lily shows him her hunter’s license and black credit card.

“You must be the manager. Look, I just came off a job and was thrown right into another one, so I need some help picking out some clothes for this job.” The manager stares at Lily with wide eyes and an agape mouth.

“Y-you’re a hunter and one with a black card at that. I’m sorry for my employee’s display of rudeness. Of course you can shop here. I’ll even help you pick out the best clothes we have. For what occasion were you needing clothes for?”

_ Wow, there’s no way this poor girl is making enough money working under a manager like that. _

“Right, I need something worthy of going to a nightclub in.” 

“May I ask the name of the nightclub. Every club has its differences in the type of people and what they wear.”

“Sure, I think it’s called the Golden Night.”

“Th-th-the Golden Night!? Are you sure?” While the manager stumbles on his words Lily pulls out her phone to look at the text that Shalnark sent her.

“Yup! I’m positive. That’s definitely the name my friend sent me. Why? Is it a really sketchy place?”

“N-no! Quite the opposite. It’s the most expensive club in the country. It’s $500 just to get in the door. I’ve heard everything they serve there is top notch.”

“Ooh. I can’t wait to try their alcohol then. And money isn’t an issue for me, so can we find something that would be perfect for going to that club and for dancing.”

“Of course! And if money isn’t an issue then allow me to pick a few things from our nightclub section and you can wait in our VIP section.” The manager shows Lily to their VIP section. It’s a large room that has drinks and snacks in it with a couch, chairs and even a TV. There are the latest fashion magazines spread out on the coffee table in front of the couch and Lily picks one up to flip through it as she waits on the couch. After about ten minutes the manager comes back with three other employees, all wheeling in a bunch of hanging clothes. The manager then shows lily to the back of the room where another room was, about half the size of the VIP room. This room had mirrors for walls and a couch in it. All the clothes were wheeled into the room and the manager left Lily to try on the clothes.

_ Man, this is a lot of clothes. It’s gonna take me all night to just try them all on. I’ll just pick a few that seem like good clothes to move around in and try them on. _

After trying on a few, Lily finally chose what she thought was the perfect dress. It was a midnight blue that had a shimmer to it when she moved. It was long, down to her ankles and had slits on each side of the dress that went all the way up her thighs and ended right under her panty line. It had spaghetti straps and showed a lot of skin up top, enough that even a bra would cover too much.

_ This is perfect. If words don’t work then seduction sure as hell will. _

“That is a fine choice, miss. May I also suggest a handbag, gloves, and shoes that match the dress?” Lily looks down at her worn out black gloves that are starting to get a hole in the thumbs.

“Yeah, that would be great, thanks.” The manager grabs the bag, gloves, and shoes and rings Lily up at the cash register.

“All right, the total comes to $15,000.” Lily whistles at this.

“I figured a fancy store like this would be expensive, but do normal people really shop here?” Lily hands him her card.

“Of course not, it is a store strictly for the super rich. People come from all over the world just to shop for the latest clothes here, especially because we only sell one-of-a-kinds here.” He hands her card back.

“Hmm. That sounds like a waste. If I wanted to buy something this limited I would just order it online as soon as it comes out.”

“We don’t have an online store simply because it’s more rewarding getting to shop in person.” He hands Lily a bag full of her items.

“Huh. Sure. Well, thanks for the help.” Lily takes the bag and walks back to the hotel.

After getting back to the hotel, Lily orders room service and gets a salad and light soup with some bread sticks. After she eats she gets a shower and gets ready to leave for the nightclub. 

_ … At The Golden Night Nightclub… _

Lily walks to the bar of the nightclub to get the most expensive drink they have. While getting her drink Lily notices a young blonde sitting by herself at the bar looking a little gloomy. Lily walks over and sits next to her.

“Hey, what’s got you so down? You’re at a nightclub, you know. You’re supposed to be having fun.” Lily starts a conversation with the woman.

“Huh,” the woman looks up from the drink she was staring at, “oh. Um, it’s nothing.” The girl sits there in silence for a minute and then changes her mind.

“Actually, I’m here because my boyfriend just broke up with me and I thought coming here would help me get over him, but I don’t really feel any better.”

“Huh? You don’t feel better because all you’re doing is moping around. Come on,” Lily gets up from her chair and finishes her glass, out stretching her hand to the woman, “you’ll feel better if you go dance.”

Lily pulls the woman to the dance floor and after about ten minutes of dancing Lily spots a man watching them out of the corner of her eye.

_ That man watching us must be Mark, Tserriednich’s assistant. He looks like the man in the photo from the information Shalnark sent me. _

The man walks over to Lily and the blonde woman and persuades them to follow him. They arrive at the hotel that Tserriednich is staying at.

_ Bingo! I had hoped this would work out. Now all I need to do is convince Tserriednich to let me be his bodyguard and give me free roam of the first floor. _

They arrive in the room that the Prince is staying in and are shown to a couch that is across from the seat that the Prince was sitting in. After half an hour of talking about random topics, such as art, sports, science, and philosophy, Tserriednich gets up from his seat and goes over to the drinks cart. He sets down his empty cup and picks up the ice pick.

“After conversing with you for half an hour I can tell all that’s on your mind is sex, right blondie?” Tserriednich starts to walk over to the couch, towards the blonde woman that is sitting next to Lily. Realizing what’s about to happen Lily picks up her drink.

“Oh, well is that not why your assistant brought us here?” Says the blonde.

_ Wow, the blonde is truly a blonde. I mean really, what kind of guy wants to have an intellectual conversation before having sex. Did she really not pick up on that? _

Tserriednich towers over the blonde and shoves the ice pick into her eye, going all the way through her head, dying on impact. Lily takes a sip of her drink.

“You,” Tserriednich turns to face Lily, “you’re not fazed by this at all?” Tserriednich walks over to Lily and goes to lick a drop of blood that splattered on her face. Lily sets her drink down.

“No. I knew what I was getting into when I came here. Unlike that woman, I knew all you wanted was a good conversation.” Tserriednich smiles at this and moves to where his hand is on Lily’s thigh and his left leg is in between Lily’s legs.

“Yes. That is all I wanted and the blonde couldn’t provide, but you definitely could. I find you interesting.” Tserriednich moves his hand up Lily’s thigh and brings his face closer to hers. Then the clock strikes midnight and can be heard chiming in the room.

“It’s too bad that the day is over with. That means playtime is also over,” Lily brings up her right hand and takes the glove off, showing Tserriednich her spider tattoo, “now it’s time for business.” Tserriednich widens his eyes for a split second then proceeds to get off of Lily and sit in the chair across from her.

“Business, huh? I knew there was something odd about you being unfazed by something like that. It makes sense now.”

“Yes, it does make perfect sense that someone like you, who has ties to the underworld, knows what this tattoo means. That makes this much easier to explain.”

“What, are you here to steal my valuables? This is a pretty boring way of doing it.” Tserriednich’s eyes start to wander around the room as if he was bored or waiting for something a little more flashy to happen.

“Well, that’s all dependent on you. You see, I want a job.”

“Hmm? A job? Doing what?”

“Clearly you know that a spider’s job is to steal, well we want to steal all the valuables there are on the Black Whale, but to do that we need access to the first deck. So, can you provide me with that access by becoming your bodyguard?”

“I feel like there’s more to it than just that. What’s in it for me? And spit it all out before I lose my patience.”

“Right. Well, I’ll need time off to also explore the ship to locate all the valuables, so how about I entertain you for three days out of the week and you give me four days to do whatever I want.”

“Only three days? That’s not satisfying enough. I’ll agree if you entertain me for five days out of the week and you can have two days to do what you want and no touching my valuables.”

“T-that, uh,” Lily takes a deep breath, “alright. I’ll agree to that. I suppose two days out of the week should be enough.”

“Good. Then I want you to start as my bodyguard a week before the departure date. Now get out of my sight, I need a shower.” Tserriednich gets up and heads to the bathroom. Lily also gets up and heads out of the hotel room, going down a couple of floors into her room.

Lily undresses and decides to take another shower, feeling gross after what just happened, with Tserriednich touching Lily and licking her cheek. After her shower Lily dries off and goes to lay on her bed. She grabs her phone from the nightstand and calls Shalnark.

“Hello?”

“Shal!”

“Hey, Lily. How’s it going?”

“It’s great! I got access to the first deck, so now we won’t have any problems with stealing.”

“That’s great! But, did you have to do something unseemly?”

“Nah, it wasn’t that bad. We had a conversation, he killed a woman, he licked blood off my cheek, the clock struck midnight and we broke a deal. Nothing to worry about, Shal!”

“Uh, that entire sentence is definitely something to worry about, Lily.”

“Anyway, I’m positive that Chrollo will take this job now, so I’ll call him and tell him the details in the morning and then I’ll set out for Meteor City. Are you gonna be going back home, too? We should meet up.”

“Yeah, the boss said he has a job for me to do tomorrow and then I was planning on going back home. I’ll let you know when the job is done and then we can meet at the airport, maybe?”

“Yeah! Sounds like a plan. Alright I’ll see you tomorrow then, goodnight Shal.”

“G’night Lily.” Lily hung up the phone and put it on the nightstand, then she turned out the lights, crawled under the covers and went to bed.

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading another chapter. I’m positive this one is crappier than the others and I’m terribly sorry for that.


	4. Who’s dead and who isn’t dead?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily let’s Chrollo know that she has access to the first deck and Chrollo wants Lily to help with his stakeout. After a night of drinking things get emotional in the morning and true feelings come falling out.

_…Morning…_

Lily woke up with the sun shining on her face. She got up out of bed and washed her face, then got dressed in her hiking clothes. Lily puts the new clothes that she bought in her bag and went downstairs to check out. Lily heads to the closest coffee shop to get breakfast. While sitting at the table, sipping on her espresso and eating her breakfast sandwich, Lily calls Chrollo to give him the details. 

“Hello?”

“Chrollo! Hey, so I got the final piece. I was able to get access to the first deck so that it will be easier for everyone. Now we should be good, right? You’re gonna tell everyone, right?”

“No, not yet. There’s something I want to confirm with my own ears and then I’ll tell everyone. I’ll talk later. I'm a bit busy right now.”

“Uh, wait, Chrollo! Yeah, I can hear that. Where are you right now? I hear a whole bunch of sirens going off? Did you do something? Also, I want to meet up with you before the ship.”

“Oh. Sure. I was just taking care of a pest here at heaven's arena. Just let me know when you're in the city and we can get some coffee.”

“Heaven's Arena? Wait, did you fight Hisoka without me knowing about it!? You know I wanted to see that fight in person!”

“Yes, I did. And It's probably a good thing you weren't here, otherwise I would have tried to use you to beat Hisoka. Your powers certainly would have made killing him a lot easier.”

“You killed him?”

“Yes.”

Lily sighs, “Okay, I'll let you know when I get there. Bye.”

Lily hangs up her phone.

That _Hisoka, Hisoka Morrow, is dead? I mean, it was a fight that Hisoka had been wanting for a while, but to go out that easily? That really doesn't sit right with me. Is Hisoka really really dead? I should get to Heaven's Arena as soon as possible._

Lily goes to the airport and up to the ticket desk to get a ticket that leaves for Heaven's Arena as soon as possible. The soonest one leaves in half an hour. Lily goes to the gate to wait for her flight. She takes out her phone to text Chrollo to let him know when her flight arrives.

_Lily: Hey, got a flight. It’ll be there around ten this evening._

_Chrollo: Okay. Then that means you will be here in time._

_Lily: in time for what?_

_Chrollo: you’ll see when you get here._

It's about a ten hour flight to heaven's arena so Lily takes out her headphones and book and relaxes until she gets there.

It's about ten at night by the time she gets to the city. Lily pulls out her phone and calls Chrollo.

“Hello?”

“Hey, I’m here. It's pretty late for some coffee, but do you wanna grab some drinks?”

“Yeah. Meet me at Top of the City.”

“That's expensive. Are you paying?”

“Yeah, I'll even pay for a meal. When you get here tell the hostess that your party has already been seated. The name is under Amber.” If Chrollo could only see Lily's face right now. She is very unimpressed.

“Of Course it is. I'll be there in ten.” Lily hangs up the phone and heads toward a large skyscraper on the opposite end of the city from where Heaven's Arena is. The skyscraper isn't nearly as tall as Heaven's Arena, but it still towers over every other building it's around. Top of the City is a restaurant that sits at the very top of the skyscraper. It has a glass dome as the ceiling so that diners can watch the sky and the city as they eat or drink at the bar. They even have an elevator specifically for the restaurant, it only goes to and from the restaurant. Lily exits the elevator and tells the hostess her party has been seated. The hostess looked a bit skeptical of Lily and Lily showed her hunter's license and her I.D. that showed that her name was under the reservation. The hostess apologizes and quickly leads Lily to a table that sits two right next to the window.

“So, you made reservations for this place? In my name?”

“I went to a coffee shop after I told Shalnark, Kortopi and Machi to confirm Hisoka’s death when I overheard some people speaking. They said something about being a bodyguard for a VIP that is going on the ship. So, I followed them. They led me back to a hotel where their VIP is currently staying. I waited and it only took about twenty minutes before the VIP left. I followed them and overheard them talking about having a reservation here for around this time. So, I made a reservation for fifteen minutes earlier than they did, so that I could eavesdrop on them here and find out more information about them and if they are meeting another VIP going on the ship. This way I can gain as much information as possible about my targets before we steal from them.”

“So, that's why you just had to make an emergency reservation? Here? In my name? Again?”

“In short, yes, I did. You should be used to it by now. I do it, maybe, twice a year?” The waiter came over to their table and asked for their orders. Chrollo answers for both of them.

“We’ll both have the steak, medium rare. And we'll have a bottle of Merlot. —

“Uh no. He'll have the Merlot. I would like the most top shelf whiskey you have, straight and bring the bottle,” Lily interjects, feeling like she is really going to need stronger liquor than wine. The waiter leaves and comes back a few minutes later with a bottle of merlot, a bottle of whiskey, and two glasses. He pours the drinks and goes to take the bottles back when both Lily and Chrollo hold out their hands to stop him.

“Leave the bottle,” they say in unison. The waiter has a bewildered look on his face for a second and then is composed again and leaves the bottles. After downing her first glass Lily then says to Chrollo,

“I don't know if you got the feeling, but—“ Lily refills her glass, downs that, and refills it again, “I have this really bad feeling that something is going to happen, or already happened. I know you said you sent Machi, Shalnark and Kortopi to confirm Hisoka's death, but have any of them gotten back to you, yet?” Chrollo finished off his glass and refilled it.

“I called them earlier but, Machi's phone went to voicemail and then I called Shalnark. He said that he was still with Kortopi and he said that they all confirmed that Hisoka was dead. I don't think there is anything to worry about, but your gut instinct is always right.” By the time Chrollo got done talking Lily finished another glass and refilled.

“That's why I feel really uneasy. It's making me more upset by talking about it though, so can we just leave it for tomorrow?” 

“Of course. It looks like my target has arrived, anyway.” Chrollo sips on his wine while watching his target move closer from the corner of his eye. His target takes the seat at the table behind him. They both notice that he is alone. They both finish off their glasses, refill and start to sip on those as they watch a woman approach the man that took a seat behind Chrollo. The man gestures for the woman to sit down across from him.

“You have my utmost gratitude for inviting me here tonight. I can never get a reservation on the days that I am free,” says the woman.

“Yes, well I already had this reserved, so instead of dining alone I thought I would ask a beautiful woman like yourself to dine with me. But I do have to let you know that this is not for pleasure, it's strictly business Miss Gardner,” says the man.

“Why yes, of course Mr. Heyweather. This business you speak of, it has to do with that announcement that the Emperor of Kakin made about an expedition to the Dark Continent, yes?”

“Yes, I wanted you to be the first that I get into contact with. As a high ranking official of the V5 I wanted to extend an invitation to you and your family to be one of the first businesses to be established on the new continent.”

So as not to seem too suspicious Lily and Chrollo hold hands with the free hands that they aren't drinking with and lean closer into each other as they gaze out the window and pretend to be long-time lovers out on a once-in-a-lifetime date.

“Can you use gyo to see if they're nen users?,” Chrollo whispers to Lily. Lily uses gyo and slowly turns her head with a giggle as she brings her free hand up to her mouth. She scans the entire room with her gyo as she does this.

“They aren't nen users, but the bodyguards that they brought with them that are by the entrance are,” lily whispers back to Chrollo with a smile still on her face and her hand obscuring her mouth so that nobody could read her lips.

“Well, that won't do, now will it,” Chrollo chuckles with a smile on his face and then goes back to looking out the window. They occasionally talk about small things like the weather and how beautiful the city is at night with some chuckles and giggles thrown in while still listening to the people behind them.

“New continent?” The woman asks.

“Yes, the V5 is going to propose that the Kakin Empire join us by creating a new continent and we will become the V6. There is an unoccupied continent about two weeks away by ship. We are going to propose this to the Kakin Empire and hope that they take it. We will use this as a guise to gain control over them and this expedition. We are also asking help from the Hunter Association to help gain control over Beyond Netero and his expedition to the Dark Continent. What I want from you and your family is help in gaining control over the new continent and in return your business will dominate the new continent.” The man replies.

“Well, that does sound like an interesting proposition. I will have to talk to the family about this first before I give an answer.”

“Of course.” That's when the waiter came over to Chrollo and Lily with their food. By this time both of them had already finished their bottles of alcohol and asked the waiter to bring out more bottles of the same stuff. The waiter looked a little hesitant, but went to retrieve them right away. As the waiter came back with both bottles the man that sat behind Chrollo looked at the bottles he was carrying and went a little wide eyed and followed them to our table, then he had a questioning look on his face. Lily and the man’s eyes met and he quickly turned around.

_Heh. What? Even an official who's able to get a reservation here can't afford top shelf? Is that the look he was giving me? Geez. He should know that the only people who can afford to eat here are ones who can afford top shelf alcohol._

As lily thinks this she pauses. She looks at the gloved hand that is pouring yet another glass of whiskey, then looks down at the clothes that she's been wearing all day, her traveling clothes, black boots, black cargo pants and a white t-shirt. She also still has her olive green traveling backpack with her that she set down on the floor at her side. She then looks up at Chrollo. 

_Well, at least he had some sense to wear a suit. But he's wearing that bandana across his forehead again. Geez. I always tell him that attracts too much attention and he should just wear his bangs down to hide his tattoo._

“What?” Chrollo finishes pouring another glass and takes a sip wondering why lily is staring at him. Lily shakes her head with a smile and goes to down her drink, refill it, and start eating. As she is eating with her right hand she releases her left hand from Chrollo's and starts to tap on the table in code:

_We stand out. I think the guy behind you realizes that. When the waiter brought over alcohol he had a questioning look on his face as he looked at me._

Chrollo replies in code:

_It's fine. Let's finish eating and drinking and then we can go. I got the information that I need._

By the time they were done eating they had finished off their bottles. The waiter hesitantly handed Chrollo the bill and without any hesitation Chrollo pulled out his credit card with a smile and handed it to the waiter without even looking at the bill. Lily wanted to burst out laughing at that exchange. _It's been awhile since I've seen him do that. It's just like Chrollo to not give a care in the world how much he spends because why should he? He's a class A criminal who steals for a living. I don't think he's ever made a single honest Dollar in his entire life. This fool hardly ever spends the money that he does make from stealing and selling on the black market just so that when he does splurge like that he can make that face when giving his credit card away._

The waiter comes back with Chrollo's card and gives a deep bow as he and Lily walk to the elevator arm in arm. Once they get in the elevator and the door shuts Lily unlocks their arms as she bursts out laughing.

“Oh man. It's been awhile since you've done that.” Lily wipes tears from her eyes and tries to straighten up, but as she does she feels dizzy and is off balance, falling into Chrollo. Chrollo smiles as he lets Lily lean on him for support, but then they both almost fall over as Chrollo grabs the wall.

Chrollo chuckles, “Looks like we both drank a bit too much. Are you going to come back to my place or did you get a hotel room?”

“Your place? You mean the floor you owned in Heaven's Arena? I passed by on my way here and it looks like you blew the place up. Do you really think they'll let you step foot in there again?”

“Good point. Do you want to get a hotel room then?”

“Sure, but you're paying again. Just don't use my name, would you?”

“Of course I won't use your name.”

Chrollo and Lily go to the closest hotel, supporting each other along the way as they wobble down the street. When they get there Chrollo uses his own name and card to get them a room. Lily is worn out from traveling and drinking and doesn't pay attention when Chrollo books the room. When they get to the room Chrollo opens the door, walks in, shuts the door, and walks Lily to the bed. Lily, realizing they are in the room, stops in her tracks in front of the bed. She sets down her bag on the floor, sits on the bed and takes off her boots.

“Thanks for walking me here Chrollo. I'll see you in the morning. Goodnight.” Lily says this with half-lidded eyes as she takes off her socks and gloves. 

“Hmm. Yeah, okay. Goodnight.” Chrollo says as he walks to the other side of the bed and takes his wallet and phone out of his pockets to put on the nightstand. Lily stands up and then turns to Chrollo.

“What are you doing?"

“What does it look like?”

“Did you only book one room?”

“Of course I did. I paid for your meal and drinks. I never said I would pay for your room. This one's mine. If you want your own you should go buy it yourself.”

“I don't have the energy to glare at you right now, but if I did I would be glaring. I also don't have the energy to argue with you, otherwise I would definitely get you to go get another room. I'm staying here for the night.” As Lily says this she takes off her Cargo pants, puts her phone on the nightstand and crawls into the bed.

“I figured. That's why I made sure it was a king size bed. If you want I can make a pillow barrier. There sure are enough pillows around.” Chrollo says this as he undresses down to his boxers and crawls into bed.

“Don't care. Goodnight!” Lily mumbles before falling asleep.

“Goodnight.” Chrollo turns out the light and falls asleep as well.

  
  


_...The Next Morning…_

Lily is awakened by the sound of curtains being pulled open and light shining on her face. Lily groans as she sits up and opens her eyes. She looks where the curtains opened and there stands a naked Chrollo drying his sopping wet hair with a towel.

“Rise and shine sleepy head.” Chrollo says as Lily squints at him. Lily crawls to the other side of the bed where Chrollo is standing and she sits on the edge of the bed waving Chrollo over. Chrollo walks up to her and she puts her hands on his chest.

“Time Exchange.” Lily and Chrollo's aura start to mix.

**_Time Exchange:_** _This is a nen ability of Lily's that allows her to transfer her aura to someone else, or for her to steal someone else's aura; this only works if she is touching the person, or at least close enough to the person's aura. The transferring of aura allows Lily to exchange wounds, internal and external._

“Ah. My head hurts now. I just took medicine for the one that I had, you know,” Chrollo says as he steps back and wraps the towel around his waist. He walks to the dresser and pours a glass of water, walking back over to Lily and giving it to her.

**_In this case:_** _Lily used Time Exchange to transfer the hangover she had to Chrollo._

“And now you get to nurse my hangover too.” Lily takes the water from Chrollo and takes a sip, giving it back to Chrollo and looking at the alarm clock on the nightstand.

“What the hell Chrollo! It's already nine o’clock!? Why didn't my alarm go off?”

“It did go off. I shut it off immediately because it hurt my head and I went back to sleep. I woke up about an hour ago and went back to my place to get clothes and medicine, then I took a shower. Just now I got done with my shower and came to wake you up. Why are you freaking out? It's not like you have anywhere to be.” Chrollo puts on the clothes he got from his apartment in Heaven's Arena.

“Because I _just_ got Save Point to work for me when I usually get up at 5am. And now I'm going to have to do it at 9am. That's way too late in the morning to be doing that.”

**_Save Point:_ ** _This is another ability of Lily's. It allows her to basically cheat death as long as she saves a point in time. She cannot actually go back to this specific point in time if she dies. This ability just allows her body to rewind it's own time and aura to the point she saved. This ability can only work for a 24 hour period and so every 24 hours she has to create a new save point. If she dies and reverts back to a save point then she will not be able to create a save point for another 24 hours, so until she saves again she is completely mortal and will be very much dead the next time she dies within that 24 hour period after the first death. It also takes her 30 minutes of uninterrupted meditation to create a save point._

“Then just wait till you go to bed. That's around midnight, right? That's the perfect time to do that.”

“That is _not_ the perfect time to be doing that. If anything that's the worst time. Do you know how many times I’ve been with Troupe and have been caught in the middle of a job at midnight? No. I'll just do it now and fix it later, so be quiet, would ya?” Lily lays back down in bed, closing her eyes and steadies her breathing.

“Save Point.”

**_In this case:_ ** _Lily was mad about the time she woke up because she would rather wake up early when most people are asleep to be able to create a save point so that her meditation won't get interrupted. Lily is also annoyed that she will have to find a time to reset it back to 5am, but she doesn't know when the next chance she will get to do it because she will have to go an entire day without a save point to do it, which will leave her vulnerable to death until then._

_...Half an hour later…_

Lily opens her eyes and sits up. She puffs out her cheeks, shows her ren and glares at Chrollo who is sitting at the end of the bed, on his phone, with his back to her. Chrollo shakes like he has a chill run down his back. Without turning to look at Lily Chrollo says,

“You know, you really shouldn't show your ren like that. What if somebody notices, hmm?” Lily shuts off her ren.

“Tch. What do you care. I'm sure you would be so excited that you would wet your pants if somebody busted through that door looking for a fight.”

“Hmm. I doubt that. I just went to the bathroom. Are you going to take a shower? Because if you need help,” Chrollo finally looks back at Lily with a smirk on his face, “I'll help you.” Lily gives Chrollo a dead panned look.

“Why are all the men in my life perverted?” That was meant to be a rhetorical question, but Chrollo answers it anyways.

“Because that's the way men were made, so do you want my help or not?” Lily stands up and stretches. She walks over to Chrollo, hits him on the head and continues to walk toward the bathroom.

“You never answered my question.”

“Do whatever you want!” Lily yells from the bathroom as she starts to undress with the door wide open.

At that invitation Chrollo walks to the bathroom and undresses, hopping into the shower after Lily. He wraps his arms around her waist enveloping her as she is trying to wet her hair, with her facing toward the back of the shower, toward Chrollo. Lily freezes with her hands in her hair and her eyes closed. She sensed him walking to the bathroom and getting in the shower with her, but it never crossed her mind that Chrollo would have sexual intentions, that is, until he hugged her just now. Lily just realized that they are both adults, two _very_ naked adults who are _touching_. 

Lily had always thought of Chrollo as an older brother. They grew up in Meteor city together. They used to take baths and sleep in the same bed together when they were kids. So why is this any different?

It's because they haven’t done this since they were kids. Lily was ten the last time they took a bath together and 16 the last time they slept in the same bed together. That's why it's only dawning on Lily right now that this could very well turn into something that she never expected.

_What do I do? What do I do? Do I hug him back? Is that too weird? What is he expecting me to do? Does he have any sexual intentions? I could use En to figure that out but then would that be too obvious? Would that make me look like a dunce who knows absolutely nothing about relationships? Because hell, I don't know anything about relationships. I never stopped to think about that. I was never in one place long enough to create that kind of relationship and I’ve certainly never thought about any of my friends, the spiders, that way._

Before Lily has a chance to react to Chrollo, he whispers in her ear.

"Lily, what are you thinking right now?" Chrollo’s words make Lily freeze up even more, if that's possible. She takes a couple seconds to think it over, opens her eyes and rests her arms on his shoulders, relaxing.

“I'm thinking… that I never stopped to think about this before.”

“This? Oh,” Chrollo stood up straight and smiled down at Lily, putting a hand on top of her head, “don't think too hard about it, okay? I don't have any sexual intentions. As of right now, you're the same little sister you've always been.” As Chrollo reassures her he grabs the shampoo and puts it on her head, rubbing it in as she closes her eyes. There's just silence between the two as Lily rinses her head and Chrollo goes through the same motions with the conditioner. Lily rinses and Chrollo grabs a cloth, putting body soap on it and handing it to Lily. Lily washes most of herself and then hands the cloth to Chrollo so that he can wash her back. Chrollo steps out of the shower as Lily rinses off and he dries himself off. Lily turns the shower off and steps out. Chrollo hands her a towel to dry off with and while she dries her body he dries her hair for her. Once dry, Lily drops the towel on the floor and leans into Chrollo's chest. Being only five feet tall the top of Lily's head barely reaches Chrollo's collarbone.

“Is it true?” Lily mumbles into Chrollo's chest.

“Is what true?”

“What you just said, about me only being like a sister to you?”

Chrollo sighs, “you're the only one who knows how to catch me in my lies, huh? It wasn't a complete lie. It was partly the truth too. When I teased you about needing help I had half-hearted intentions, but then you left the door open and said I could do whatever I want, so I took that as an invitation to act on my intentions. When I got in the shower with you and when I hugged you I certainly had sexual intentions at that moment, but then you froze. When you froze, my mind froze as well. I started to think that maybe I shouldn't do it. That's why I asked you what you were thinking. I wanted to know how you felt, I wanted to know if that's what you wanted, if that's why you said that and left the door open. And when you said that you had never thought about it before that's when I started to think that you really are just a sister to me. I saw how innocent you were and I don't want to be the one who takes your innocence.” Lily raises a fist and lets it fall on Chrollo's chest.

“You idiot,” with the towel still on her head Lily raises her face to look at Chrollo, “why?” Chrollo lets his hands fall to his sides and smiles down at Lily.

“Because I want to be the scary big brother who gets to scare off your boyfriends when they make you angry. Because I want to be the soft big brother who eats ice cream and watches movies and lets you cry on my shoulder when you have a bad breakup. Because we've had enough firsts together. Because I want to let you have a first with someone else. Because… even if I’m not your first, I'll always be here, waiting to be your last.” With tears stinging her eyes, ready to fall, Lily asks,

“My last? Why my last?”

“You don't remember? Heh. When you were five we made a promise to each other that we would get married when we got older. I’m still holding you to that. Maybe not anytime soon, but definitely before I become a wrinkly old man would be nice.” The tears start falling and Lily reaches up to cover her face with her towel. Chrollo wraps his arms around her and hugs her. They stay like this for what seems like an eternity, a blissfully contentful eternity. 

The silence filled eternity is broken when Chrollo's phone rings out. Chrollo reluctantly lets go of Lily and grabs his phone from his pants on the floor.

“Chrollo.” He's quiet for a while before his eyes glaze over and his nen starts to take on an even more murderous aura than usual. Chrollo crushes his phone as it's still near his ear. He drops his hand to his side, dropping his crushed phone to the floor. He starts to get dressed when a worried Lily is about to reach out to him and ask what's wrong, but Lily's phone was the next to ring out. She wraps her towel around her, heading out to the bedroom to pick up the phone she left on the nightstand.

“Hello?”

“Lily. It's Machi. I'm calling you because I want you to watch your back and sleep with one eye open.”

“Huh? Why? What happened?” As Lily says this she slowly turns around to look at Chrollo, a worried look on her face.

“Chrollo finally gave in and fought Hisoka yesterday. He thought he killed him and had Kortopi, Shalnark and I verify that he's dead, but after verifying it Kortopi and Shalnark left and I stayed behind to tend to Hisoka's wounds because he paid me to, before the fight. When I went to sew him up his nen came back, he came back to life. And then he tied me up and said that he was hunting spiders, that he is going to kill us all! Anyway, Hisoka knows that you're technically a spider, right?” As Machi says this Lily lifts her right hand to look at the 12 legged spider on the back of it. It has the number 13 on it.

“Yeah, of course he knows.”

“Well, watch your back, okay? Also, I haven't been able to get a hold of Kortopi and Shalnark.” Chrollo is finished with getting dressed and then he takes out his book, opening it and unleashing an even more menacing aura than Lily thought was possible. For the first time in her life, Lily was scared for her life. She really thought Chrollo might kill her just because she was in his line of sight.

“I will Machi. I'll also try to get a hold of Kortopi and Shal, okay?” Chrollo slammed his book shut and put it back in his coat pocket. Lily took a huge gulp of air and Chrollo walked over to Lily and took her phone from her.

“There's no need for that. They're dead. Kortopi and Shalnark are dead. I never gave their abilities back to them and they've vanished from my book,” Chrollo was looking at Lily the entire time he was speaking to Machi, like he was trying to apologize, then he looks up and looks out the window, “Machi, make sure the others understand that our priority right now is staying alive. I had plans to tell everyone today that we have a new job on that expedition that’s going to be happening to the Dark Continent. So, right now everyone’s priorities are staying alive and securing passage on the Black Whale. The next time all of us will meet will be on the Black Whale. I'll explain what we do next from there.”

“Wha—uh—ye—yes sir!” Machi was very confused as to why Chrollo was talking to her through Lily's phone. Chrollo hung up and handed the phone back to Lily. Chrollo looks at Lily with some new found resolve.

“Well, What are you going to do, Lily?” Lily was absolutely stunned by what she heard. She could feel her face become wet from tears that she had no control over. Shalnark and Kortopi are dead. Lily only ever met Kortopi once and doesn't really have any empathy for his death, but… Shalnark was different. Shal was one of the original members of the Phantom Troupe. They all grew up together in Meteor city. Shal even went to take the Hunter Exam with Lily 12 years ago where they became hunters together. Looking down at her right hand, at her spider tattoo, so as to remind herself of where she came from, Lily finds her resolve. With tears still streaming down her face Lily looks up at Chrollo and squeezes her right hand into a fist, putting her fist over her heart.

“We'll accept anything you leave here, but don’t you ever take anything away from us. I, Lily Amber, from this point forward—er—at least until Hisoka is dead, am a spider through and through. Give me your orders, Danchou.” Chrollo smiles at Lily and puts his hand on her head.

“I've been waiting years for you to say that. Since Hisoka is bound to follow us wherever we go, we’ll make where he can run to, a bit smaller. Your orders are to lay low until we meet again on the Black Whale. Also, don't forget, it's house rules.”

“Got it. If you don't get caught, then it never happened.”

“Well, yeah. Those are house rules, but I was talking about the other house rules.” 

“Oh. Uh—right! Since it’s an all out war it’s first come, first serve! So, the first person to find Hisoka is the one who gets to kill him.”

“Yup.” With that, Chrollo pats Lily's head and walks out of the room. The next time the two of them would meet would be on the Black Whale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and leaving kudos!


	5. Paying a visit to home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily goes back home to meteor city for the first time in a while and has some downtime with Phinks and Feitan while getting yelled at by Machi later on because of their antics

It’s been a while since Lily has been back to Meteor City, her home. She heads straight to the Troupe mansion on the outskirts of the city. When she gets there she heads to her room and drops off her bag and takes off her shoes. Remembering what Chrollo said earlier about Shalnark being dead, Lily got the urge to go to his room, as if going there would really confirm it.

Lily walks across the hall and opens the door to Shalnark’s room. Shal was a real technology wizard and the proof of that stands before Lily. There’s computers and other gadgets that Lily wouldn’t even begin to be able to name, all spread out on the desks and inside storage bins that take over the right side of the room. She walks further into the room going to sit on Shal’s bed that’s right in front of her. She stares up at the ceiling trying to hold tears in, but gives up after one falls out and she falls back onto the bed, covering her eyes with her arm. She remembers how she would always come crying to Shal anytime Feitan and Phinks would pull a prank on her because she knew that every time Shal would always be able to one up their pranks.

Just then someone else walks into the room and sits on the bed right next to Lily. She could feel the presence of who it was and made no move to get up.

“Chrollo told everyone,” says Feitan. Lily doesn’t reply because she’s afraid her voice will crack and her tears won’t be silent anymore. Feitan understood and just waited it out until Lily was ready to talk about it. After a few minutes of silence: 

“I’m not ready to talk,” says Lily as she gets up and looks at Feitan, “But,” she looks down and holds his hand, giving it a squeeze as her stomach rumbles, “I am ready to eat.” She smiles and Feitan gives her a smile back. As he’s about to reply to her Phinks comes running in the room.

“There you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you. It’s your turn to make dinner,” Phinks straightens himself up after he notices Lily, “Lily! You’re home? I didn’t know. Your name isn’t on the board.”

“Hey Phinks. I just got home like twenty minutes ago.”

“Oh. You shoulda come to say hi. Also, Fei, you gonna make dinner or what?”

“Was just about to.”

Lily let’s go of Fei’s hand and the three of them go downstairs making their way to the kitchen. Fei starts cooking dinner and Phinks sits at the island and pours himself a drink. It looked like Phinks had already been drinking for a while as Lily noticed he already had an empty bottle of brandy and two more on the ready beside him. She walks over to the chore board that’s on the fridge and moves her magnet to say that she’s home and is able to do the sweeping and vacuuming tomorrow. Lily sees that it's only Phinks, Feitan and her that are home right now. After doing that she heads to the cellar to grab a few bottles of Whiskey that they are clearly going to be needing for tonight.

“Whooh! You know me so well.” Phinks reaches for the whiskey as Lily puts it on the counter, but gets his hand slapped away.

“I don’t think so! This is for me. If you want some go get it yourself.” She goes over to the cabinets above the dishwasher and grabs a glass, bringing it back to the island to pour herself a drink and sit beside Phinks as they wait for dinner to get done.

“So, how long are you staying this time?” Asks Phinks to Lily.

“Probably just tonight and will probably leave tomorrow afternoon. I’ve still got jobs to do, I can’t just sit around here until we’re ready to leave. In fact, I won’t be back before we get on the Black Whale.” 

"Then, how about we have some downtime tonight, while you're still here." Lily smiles at this.

"Sounds like a plan."

The three of them talk, laugh, and drink a shit ton during dinner. After they're done with dinner they move the drinking into the living room.

“How about this!?” Lily is sitting on the floor in front of the entertainment stand going through DVD’s while Phinks and Feitan are sitting on the couch drinking.

“Oh! Good idea! We can have a marathon, then!” Phinks agrees to the DVD that Lily is holding up. It was the first of a trilogy that was Shalnark's favorite. It was a movie about a group of underground hackers going against the government. The three of them never really understood the movies, but they understood that they were Shal’s favorites and they wanted to watch them in honor of him.

“I will make popcorn.” Fei offers up as he heads to the kitchen. Lily puts in the DVD to get it started and also heads to the kitchen.

“I want milkshakes too!” Phinks gets up too, not wanting to be left out.

“Wait, you guys! I want some snacks other than that!”

  
  


…  _ the next morning …  _

The three of them are woken up by a scream. Phinks lifts his head off the floor looking for where the scream came from as Lily groans from her position on top of Feitan as the two of them are laying on the couch.

“Who?” Feitan asks groggily as he just woke up. It was at that moment that the person in question stomped into the living room to yell at the three of them.

“You guys are such disgusting pigs! Seriously, I leave for a couple of days and when I get back it looks like this. It’s always the two of you, anytime you’re together you always make a mess of things! Now get up off your lazy asses and get cleaning!” Machi really gave it to the three of them, not realizing Lily was also there. “Oh! Lily! Your home? I didn’t realize. So, it was your fault the house is such a mess! Geez if it was just these two idiots there wouldn’t be ice cream and whip cream and candy all over the place! I shoulda known it was your fault. Now, the three of you get up and get cleaning! This place is disgusting!”

“Yes, ma.”

“Yeah, yeah, witch.”

“Mmm.”

“HUH!?! Phinks! Did you say something!?” Machi walks over to Phinks and puts her foot on his head holding it down.

“Huh!? You wanna go!?” As the two of them are bickering Lily and Feitan get up and walk into the kitchen, but Lily was only half asleep, that is until she saw what was in the kitchen.

“HOLY SHIT! Did a tornado run through here!?” Machi and Phinks come into the kitchen and Phinks gives a low whistle.

“I so don’t remember doing any of this. It’s all clearly Lily’s fault. The last thing I even remember was her saying she wanted milkshakes.”

“HUH!? What are you talking about? It’s all your fault, Phinks! You’re the one who wanted to add candy and whip cream. Also, you didn’t even put a lid on it when you started the blender! That’s why it’s all over the place!”

“What? No way! I just came into the kitchen to grab a bag of chips!”

As the two of them bicker, Machi leaves to go to her room to unpack her things. Feitan grabs a broom, a mop, a bucket, some washcloths, and starts to fill the bucket with soap and water. He hands the broom to Lily and a washcloth to Phinks, ending their verbal feud, but starting a silent one that involves a lot of glaring.

After the three of them were done cleaning up the kitchen and living room they went their separate ways to take a shower after the mess they had made last night had gotten onto them, as well. Lily takes a long, well deserved shower, but then a thought occurs to her,  _ Shit I forgot about Save Point. I didn’t do it this morning and it’s already like one o’clock.  _ Lily turns off the water, quickly getting out of the shower and wrapping a towel around her as she walks back into her bedroom only to find Feitan laying on her bed.

“Fei, what are you doing here?” He sits up and she sits next to him.

“You leaving?”

“Yeah. I just need to do Save Point and pack and then I have to leave.” Fei cups his hand on Lily’s cheek.

“You never stay long anymore.” Lily returns the gesture, cupping her hand on his cheek and touching their foreheads together, something reminiscent of their childhood.

“I know. I’m sorry. I wish I could stay longer, but I have a job to do. After this job, when we’re all back home, I’ll stay longer.” Fei puts out his pinky finger from his free hand.

“Promise?” Lily hooks her pinky around his.

“Promise.”

Feitan gets up and walks to her closet, “The white ones?” He asks, referring to the clothes she normally wears on official spider jobs. 

“Yeah! Thanks!” Lily lays down on her bed to do Save Point as Fei packs her bag for her and sets out her clothes. 

After Lily is done she gets dressed in her official spider wear. She normally wears a white turtleneck with white pants and black combat boots and black gloves. She accompanies that with a black vest that has a gold embroidered outline of a wolf howling on the back and a black military cap with a golden rope around it and has a white top. She doesn’t forget her trusty dual knives, either. They’re all black with golden howling wolves engraved on the hilts. Lily checks the mirror to make sure everything is in it’s right place. Her flowing white hair is as tamed as it gets and the bags under her blue and green heterochromatic eyes are the best they’re gonna get, for now.

Lily picks up her bag and heads out of her room. She stops in Shal’s room to say one last goodbye. She gets downstairs and sees that Machi, Phinks and Feitan are all waiting for her.

“Stay safe and keep an eye open when you sleep alright, Lily?” Machi is the first to come up to her and hug her.

“Yeah, squirt. Wouldn’t want anything to happen to you before we meet again.” Phinks is next and he ruffles her hair. Lily then walks over to an awkward looking Feitan.

“I’m gonna miss you the most, Fei!” Lily squeezes him as he stands there shocked, but then hugs her back. Lily always found it easiest to hug Fei since he’s only an inch taller than her.

“See you on the ship, Lily.”

“Yeah! See you guys, later! Machi, Phinks, Fei! Be careful!” Lily walks out the door and out of Meteor City.

  
  
  
  
  



	6. Mission Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily goes to the Hunter Association to explain the situation to Cheadle. She then heads back to Kakin to start her job as Tserriednich’s “bodyguard”

It was a long flight to get back to the Hunter Association and so it was late when Lily got there, so she decided to check in to a hotel for the night. In the morning, Lily went straight to the association and straight to Cheadle's office. Beans tries to stop her, but she says it's important and continues past him, beans gave up on trying to stop her knowing how headstrong Lily can be.

"Cheadle, I need to talk to you about something important." Lily shuts the door behind her.

"I'm very busy right now, can it wait, Lily?"

"No. Hisoka Morrow killed Shalnark. I'm sure you know from my files that both were Hunters and that both were Spiders." Cheadle stops what she's doing and looks up at Lily.

"It's a crime for a Hunter to kill another Hunter. Are you asking for me to put a bounty out for him, Lily?"

"No. I'm asking that you refrain from putting a bounty out for him and leave this job to the Spiders."

"And what about you? Are you hunting Hisoka as a Spider or as a Hunter, Lily?"

"As a Spider. But I ask that you make it my only job as a Hunter from now on and to just put that I'm hunting a bounty in my log, but in reality I plan to hunt Hisoka as a Spider. I'm only letting you know this because we plan to hunt Hisoka on the Black Whale and if anyone asks why I'm there, you now know why." 

"I see. Then I will enter it into your log that you're just hunting a bounty, BUT in your secret file I am going to put that you are currently hunting Hisoka Morrow. And I ask that you avoid involving any civilians in this hunt of yours, Lily."

"As a Spider, I can't guarantee that. But I will try my best to keep it to a minimum." 

“All right, then. I shouldn’t be expecting any help from you until he’s dead, then. Right, Lily?”

“Yes, I will resume my job as a Hunter when Hisoka is dead and once we’ve reached the Dark Continent.”

“Okay, I will see you then. But keep your eyes and ears open as you are working this job, alright, Lily?”

“Of course. I’ll see you then.” Lily leaves Cheadle’s office with a wave.

Her next destination is going back to Kakin to check in with Tserriednich and start her job as his “bodyguard”. When she gets there she meets with him in his hotel room. She sits on the couch as Tserriednich pours himself a drink.

“So, what is it that you needed to talk about,” he says as he walks over to the chair, that is right across from Lily, to sit in it.

“I can’t keep my end of the bargain,” as she says this Tserriednich raises his eyebrow and lowers his drink to listen more closely at what Lily says next, “I need five days out of the week to explore the ship.”

“And why would I allow such a thing?”

“Because I need to hunt someone. He’s going around hunting Spiders and since all of us are going to be on the Black Whale, that means he will be too. He killed my best friend, so I want to be the one to find him and kill him before any of the other Spiders do.”

“Hmm,” Tserriednich takes a swig of his drink, thinking about Lily’s proposition, “alright, I’ll allow it because I like your spunk, but don’t forget you need to entertain me for two days out of the week. And don’t ever ask for more days off again because I won’t allow it.” He waves her off as if to say the conversation is done.

For the next week Lily acts as Tserriednich’s bodyguard, until the day the Black Whale departs. On the day that the Black Whale departs, Lily is one of two bodyguards that accompanies Tserriednich to the cast off ceremony. All of the bodyguards are to stand watch backstage as the 14 princes of Kakin stand on the stage. Lily is standing by with Tserriednich’s only other female bodyguard, Theta. Theta is not one for small talk so Lily just waits, looking around to see if she recognizes any of the bodyguards backstage. She does recognize one immediately and heads over to him to talk because she was bored out of her mind.

“Hey, Kurapika! Fancy seeing you here.” She says as she approaches the blonde haired kid. He turns to face her with a surprised look on his face.

“Lily! What are you doing here? Are you here on official Hunter business?” He asks her.

“Uh, something like that. I’m chasing a bounty and I needed a way onto the first deck to make sure my bounty isn’t up there, so I became Tserriednich’s bodyguard.” Lily smiles, proud of her achievement, but Kurapika’s eyes go wide at this information.

“Your Tserriednich’s bodyguard? Don’t you know what kind of person he is?” Kurapika’s voice goes low with disdain.

“Yeah,” Lily says with a sigh, “I do know. And since you’re a friend of Izu’s, you’re a friend of mine, so if you need anything at all, just ask.” Lily says, fully aware that Tserriednich is a dealer in body parts and that Kurapika is looking for his family’s eyes. Lily found this out about Kurapika when she last saw him two years ago when she had happened upon him and Izunavi training in a forest. Kurapika then looks behind Lily.

“Speaking of Izunavi…” he says as Izunavi walks up behind Lily and she jumps as her skin crawls. She got comfortable talking to Kurapika and let her guard down. She hadn’t noticed Izunavi was there or that he had snuck up behind her. Now that she spreads her nen a bit, she can tell that Izunavi went into In.

“Lily. It’s been a while. What, two years now?” Izunavi says as Lily turns around to face him with wide eyes.

“I-I-Izu. You’re… here? Heh heh.” Lily smiles awkwardly, giving off a nervous laugh. She then turns around slowly and starts to walk off, but Izunavi grabs the collar of her suit jacket and pulls her back.

“Where do you think you’re going? I’m not going to let you run away this time. And you’re not going to avoid my questions either.” Izunavi is normally a really laid back kind of guy and takes things as they come. He’s also not one for holding grudges, except whenever it comes to Lily. 

The two of them first met twelve years ago during the Hunter’s exam, but Lily passed and he didn’t. The next year Izunavi was finally able to pass, but found it impossible to get a job as a Hunter because he was missing something. Lily happened upon Izunavi in a forest one day and taught him what he was missing, nen. She stuck with him long enough to teach him the basics and then left to turn in a report. When she returned a month later she found him practically dead and immediately got him treatment in a hospital. After he healed up she promised to properly train him and so they spent the next year together, training. That’s when Lily got a call from the Spiders about a job they needed her expertise in.

Lily left Izunavi without giving him a proper explanation. She knew he was ready to be on his own with his nen training, but he still holds a grudge over her leaving him like that. They would run into eachother a few times over the next ten years, but Lily always managed to avoid his questions and would find the first opportunity to get away. She had no qualms about lying to anybody about who she really is, that is except to Izunavi. She liked him, and felt bad about lying to him, so she just avoids him, that way she doesn’t have to lie to him.

As Izunavi was about to open his mouth to ask Lily why she left him all those years ago, the Princes walk backstage to pick up their bodyguards. Izunavi lets go of Lily and she walks quickly back to Theta where Tserriednich is already waiting for her, albeit impatiently. Lily gives one last, sad look back to Izunavi as they walk to their airship to board the Black Whale.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really upset that Kissanime and Kissmanga are no longer with us. Especially because I don’t know any other good sites. I’ve been using those two for the past ten years and have no idea where to read my manga anymore, which also means that this fic definitely will be going non-canon as I don’t remember what exactly happens after they get aboard the Black Whale. I only remember a couple of crucial scenes for this fic, but the rest is all up in the air. So, I hope you all still stick around to see what I come up with, the rest of this fic being mostly non-canon.
> 
> Edit: I found a place to read manga, so I will be throwing things from the manga up until the point that it stops.


	7. The First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's cast off day for the Black Whale. All of the princes soon find out that nen exists and that there are nen beasts roaming about.

Finally aboard the Black Whale, Lily and Theta escort Tserriednich to the ceremony hall where the princes and the VVIPs will have a cast off banquet. This is the only place where the guards can leave the prince’s side because the banquet is the one place where the princes are allowed to interact and so it is also the most guarded place on the ship. Theta and Lily drop Tserriednich off. As they are leaving the hall to head to Tserriednich’s designated room Lily felt a strange presence and so she went into Gyo. What she sees around the room astonishes her, yet she stays stone faced so as not to gather attention. She’s surprised nobody has noticed the multitude of nen beasts just roaming around. She assumes that the beasts belong to the princes as she sees that most of them stick close to the princes.

When they get to the room Lily sits in the middle of the main room, cross legged, and closes her eyes. She spreads her nen extra thin, so thin that no one would be able to tell that she is spreading it. She does this so that she can look for the spiders, so she can know where to go looking for them later when she needs to meet up with them. She is able to look for the spiders because of an ability that she has that allows her to imbue her own nen into the spiders, acting as a kind of marker so that she can find them when she needs to. And so she spreads her nen to look for that specific marker that she imbued in the spiders.

“What are you doing?” Theta asks as she glares at Lily with a questioning look, wondering why she’s sitting on the floor with her eyes closed.

“Meditating. Seen as there isn’t anything to do as we wait for the prince to return. Is that not allowed?” Lily asks, not moving a muscle as she keeps her eyes closed, still searching for the spiders. Theta gives a grunt of disapproval as she walks off.

_ … Two Hours Later … _

A call comes onto the main line of the phone, to where every prince’s room is getting this call at the same time. It’s Kurapika. He asks if anyone can see nen beasts, as there are some in his prince’s room. Lily smirks as she listens in on the conversation about the nen beasts from all the Hunter’s association bodyguards, it’s about time somebody noticed them. Lily finds it intriguing that Kurapika is a lot like the spiders, in the fact that he has no regard for keeping nen a secret. Nen is supposed to be something that only those on the inside know about, ordinary people shouldn’t be told about it, but just like the spiders, Kurapika doesn’t care who finds out, as long as he gets what he wants, information.

A little while later a pair of bodyguards went to pick up Tserriednich. All of Tserriednich’s bodyguards were given the order to meet in the main room. Tserriednich comes back to the room and when he enters the main room he spots Lily sitting on the floor. 

“What are you doing on the floor?” He asks her, intrigued by the spider that he hired, wanting to know more about her.

“Meditating.” Lily is still searching for the spiders. It’s been two hours and she can only find eight of them, for some reason. She knows that she won’t be able to find four of them because Shalnark and Kortopi are dead, and the two newest members that Lily has recently been made aware of, Kalluto and Illumi have not been imbued with her nen yet. Kalluto joined the spiders while Lily was on her mission in that remote village in Padokea and she just hasn’t had a chance to meet with Kalluto yet. Illumi joined more recently, like about a month ago recently. It was after Hisoka had said that he was hunting spiders and Lily has been pretty busy lately, so she hasn’t been able to meet with Illumi either. Lily can only assume that the missing member that she can’t find is Chrollo. He must be hiding his nen, in turn also hiding hers.

As bodyguards file into the main room Tserriednich asks them if they know nen. Every single one of them just gives him a confused look and admits that they don’t know what he is talking about. That is until Sarkov and Theta come into the room. Tserriednich asks them and Theta says that she knows it. At that moment Lily chuckles out loud and opens her eyes. She stands up and announces that she also knows nen. She waited this long hoping that nobody would be brave enough to say that they knew it because she knew that he would want to learn and she really didn’t want to be the one to teach him.

“You do?” Tserriednich’s eyes twinkle with delight at the news that his entertainment knows this mysterious power. He’s also glad that there is more than one person who knows it.

“I can teach you.” Theta says quickly with a nervous voice as Tserriednich’s nen beast comes face to face with her. She has a right to be nervous, Tserriednich’s nen beast is pretty ugly and scary looking. It’s on four legs, like a horse, but it’s back legs have heels, like they’re a woman’s legs. And the neck is long like a giraffe’s while the face looks like a woman. As it stares at Theta the face splits into two as it opens its mouth and reveals that it has sharp, pointed teeth. Inside the mouth lies another face that has its mouth open as well, except it has tentacle-like things coming out of its mouth and on the end of them are eye balls that reach toward Theta to get a better look at her.

“Good, then teach me right now.” Tserriednich insists that he learns nen as soon as possible. Theta gives in, thinking it's impossible to go against the prince, especially with his nen beast constantly in her face. Theta starts off by teaching Tserriednich how to feel his nen with meditation. He starts this without any hesitation or complaining. Lily just sits off to the side, continuing her meditation, still looking for Chrollo and wondering why she can’t find him. Lily starts to think the worst. Theta said that she would teach him and so Lily doesn’t see any need to offer any advice, especially because she doesn’t have the time to teach him.

_ … Two Hours Later … _

Tserriednich can already feel his nen. He creates a ball of nen and switches it between his hands. Theta finds that incredible, that he’s a genius, but Lily doesn’t really see it as anything special. Of course neither of them would say what they’re thinking out loud, though, for fear of how he might react.

_ … Two Hours Later … _

Tserriednich has already learned gyo in just half a day. He’s got all the basics down, too. He truly is a genius. Theta finds this nearly impossible as it would take any normal person at least six months of meditating through normal means to be able to even feel one's nen.

“Say, Theta.” Tserriednich says to Theta as he practices his gyo.

“Yes?”

“A phone call from prince Woble’s bodyguard was patched through by Zhang Lei earlier. He says that he can teach us to use nen in 2 weeks. What do you think about that? That sounds pretty different than what you said, doesn’t it? You said that even at the earliest grasping the very basics of nen would take half a year.”

“Yes. I was being completely honest.”

“So, then that would mean that he’s bluffing, wouldn’t it?”

“... that… is possible.”

“Hey, I know you’re not this stupid. Either you or he is lying. I’m asking you which of you it is. Or would you rather I just end you now?” Tserriednich gets a tick mark on his forehead. His nen beast appears behind Theta, coming up close to her face from behind.

“There is a way to learn nen much faster than normal but it carries with it a very serious risk. He also could have some kind of ability that lets him awaken nen powers in other people. At the very least… it’s almost certain that he won’t be using any proper, standard methods. Without a doubt, my method… is the fastest, most correct method.”

“You know what the one thing I hate most in this world is?,” he gives her a side glare, “It’s a lying bitch...so… can I trust you?”

“Yes!” Just then the nen beast opens its mouth revealing the second head, which also opens its mouth and extends its tentacles. This time it’s tentacles are razor sharp on the end and it scratches Theta’s cheek, as if to give her a warning for lying to Tserriednich.

“Oh, finally!” Lily exclaims as she snaps her eyes open and shivers from a chill running down her spine. Lily just found Chrollo, as she is now positive that it was him she was looking for because he just released his In and it felt extremely sinister. He’s definitely still pissed at Hisoka.

“Finally? What are you so happy for?” Tserriednich raises his eyebrow at Lily as she gets up off the floor.

“I found a friend. Anyway, tomorrow is my day off, but I don’t mind going to talk to Kurapika tomorrow to find out his intentions for you.” 

“You act like you know him personally.” Theta says toward Lily and Tserriednich gives Lily an intrigued look.

“That’s because I do,” Lily smiles at the both of them, pulling out her Hunter’s License to show them, “I didn’t mention this earlier because I didn’t think it was important, but I’m also a hunter.” Theta goes wide-eyed and Tserriednich smirks.

“Well, aren’t you full of surprises,” Tserriednich says as he thinks about her knowing prince Woble’s bodyguard, “Lily, do you have something you want to add to learning nen in two weeks?” Tserriednich questions Lily, wondering if she has any information about nen.

“Not much, it’s just highly likely that Kurapika will find a different way to teach it. I don’t think he’ll do it the taboo way, but he’s also probably just trying to drag things out. It’s not impossible for someone to learn nen in two weeks, but Theta is correct, the proper way to learn nen is by meditating and that usually takes any normal person about six months. But Tserriednich, you’re not normal are you,” Lily smiles at him and he starts to glare at her, “you’re a genius! I have no doubt you can master nen in less than two weeks!” Tserriednich smirks at her, content with her answer.

“Hmm. Theta let the guards know that I want two of them to go to this training session and if they don’t learn anything after two weeks they can kill everyone in that room.” Tserriednich tells Theta as she goes on her comms to let the other guards know. Once she is done telling the other guards about the training session Tserriednich says that he wants to go back to training. And for the rest of the day Tserriednich trains with Theta and Lily sits off to the side observing, occasionally giving her opinion.


	8. Day 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lily meets with some of the spiders to look for Hisoka

It’s nine in the morning on the second day. Lily woke up at six this morning to get ready for the day. Since it’s her day off she got dressed in her spider clothes. Her white turtleneck and her white jeans with her black vest, black combat boots, and black gloves. She decides against wearing her hat today, but she definitely doesn’t forget her knives. Right now she’s walking down the hall with a couple of bodyguards from Tserriednich’s private army, Muhan and Danjin. When they get to the fourteenth prince’s room Lily walks straight up to Kurapika before they can get started.

“Kurapika, I need to speak with you but I don’t suppose we can go anywhere private?”

“No, it’s my job to keep an eye on everyone here. Also, why are you in your street clothes?”

“That’s why I needed to talk to you. Let me just say that, firstly Tserriednich is suspicious of your training and wants to know how you're really going about it. Anyway, I’m in my street clothes because it’s my day off so I’m headed to the lower decks to chase a bounty. That’s one of the real reasons why I’m here on the first deck and I need your help.” Kurapika raises his eyebrow. Why in the world would she need his help with a bounty?

“Why? What’s going on?”

“The bounty I’m chasing, it’s Hisoka,” Kurapika’s eyes go wide at this, “I just need you to look out for him here on the first deck. I know you have a lot on your plate, but I won’t be on the first deck for five days out of the week. I don’t believe he would hide up here and so I’m not really worried about searching for him up here but it would still help me greatly to have eyes up here, so can you tell the other hunters to keep their eyes peeled as well?”

“That is a lot. I’ll at least let you know if I see anything suspicious, but I have my main job here, so I won’t have anytime to go out of my way to search for him.”

“I understand. As a gift I’ll help you out here. You want me to display some nen for these newbies?”

“Sure, thanks Lily,” Kurapika then speaks to the entire group, “please gather around everyone, I’m about to explain nen.” As everyone starts to quiet down and face the front to pay attention to Kurapika, Lily steps up.

“Alright everyone, I’m going to show you all something that you can do with nen because it’s easiest to show you instead of explain it, right?” Lily says as she puts her index fingers together in front of her and draws a rectangle, thinking about a spider, any spider on the lowest floor, Lily draws a door that connects her to one of them so that she can meet up with them.

_**Doorway Through Space:** This is an ability of Lily's that allows her to create a doorway to any place that she has seen or has a connection with via nen. The door that she enters through is visible to all nen users, but the door that she exits through is visible to no one._

“Now, you all don’t know nen yet, and so you can’t see it, but I just drew a door,” Lily says as she opens the door, “see you all later!” She steps through the door leaving a room full of wide-eyed people wondering how she just vanished into thin air.

When she was searching for spiders she felt that there were a group of them together and thought it best to pop up with a group so as not to look too suspicious when she pops out of thin air. Stepping out of the door onto the other side, Lily runs into someone.

“Hey, watch it pipsqueak!,” the man Lily just bumped into said, but then realized who he just bumped into, “oh whoops, sorry Lily. Didn’t see you there. When did you get down here?” 

“Nice to see you too, Phinks,” Lily steps back and kicks him in the balls for bumping into her, “Hey, Franklin, Nobunaga, Fei!” Lily waves to the others as Phinks holds his crotch, almost doubling over and giving Lily a death glare.

“Hey Lily, it’s been awhile. How’ve you been?” Franklin says to her as he ruffles her hair.

“I’m good. I’ve been pretty busy this past year.” Lily says as she tries to straighten her hair back out.

“Sounds like it, short stuff. I heard you’re the one who got us this job.” Nobunaga says and Lily gives him a warning glare for calling her short stuff. She knows she’s not the tallest person around, but she doesn’t really think she’s the shortest either. But then again she is the shortest Spider. Or at least that’s how Lily feels. She believes Kalluto doesn’t count because she’s still a kid.

“Yeah, it took a lot of work to get it too, so don’t mess it up. There’s a whole bunch of hunters on board this ship and one slip up could put a target on all of us, including me. So it would be best to avoid hunters at all costs and try not to stir up too much trouble.” After she says this, Lily glares at Phinks and Feitan in particular, knowing that they stir up the most trouble, especially when they try to pull pranks on one another or the other spiders. Feitan just pats Lily on the head as Phinks straightens up.

“Yeah, yeah. It’s not like we’re gonna be going around killing a whole bunch of people, this time.” Phinks says as Lily rolls her eyes knowing full well that they can’t do a single job without killing anybody.

They head toward a cafeteria that they were near, here on the fifth floor. The fifth floor being the only floor the spiders were able to get access to on short notice. Plus it benefits them to start searching for Hisoka from the bottom of the ship and work their way to the top.

The group makes their way to a cafeteria. When they get there a few men are waiting outside the entrance stopping everyone who wishes to pass and asking for an entrance fee. Phinks tells them to move and they try to get up in his face. Lily stands back as Phinks, Nobunaga, and Feitan beat the three men blocking their way black and blue. Phinks then tells the men to show them to an empty table and to get the five of them some breakfast. While eating, Phinks has the men tell the spiders about who’s running the show down here.

The men sit on their knees on the floor in front of them and explain that there are three different gangs, or families, aboard the ship wanting to scout out new territory in the new continent. The men are just opportunistic thugs who pay a share of what they get to someone who gathers kickbacks for one of the families. Each floor is overseen by a different family and each family is connected to a prince of Kakin. Zhang Lei is a benefactor for the Xi-Yu family, Tserriednich is a benefactor for the Heil-Ly family, and Luzurus is a benefactor for the Cha-R family. When the boys hear this they turn to Lily with raised eyebrows.

“What,” Lily shrugs her shoulders, “I didn’t think it was important. I didn’t know the gangs would be such a big deal, or get in our way so I never asked Tserriednich for more details and I never got any extra details from Shal before he was murdered.” The thugs had questioning looks on their faces whispering to each other, wondering how Lily knows Tserriednich.

Franklin says to himself, “Hmm, we may end up making the three of them our enemies,” He then turns to the thugs and asks them, “Which one of them is the most powerful?” 

“Well if you’re talking about financial power and the amount of men it would have to be the Xi-Yu family, but...wait! Just what are you talking about! I’m sorry, but we have no interest in defying the families!” One thug replies with sweat forming on his temple.

“Don’t worry, you won’t be. You find guys above 190cm and write down their room number. From now on, that is your mission.” Phinks tells the thugs in a deathly serious tone, then waves them off to leave the spiders alone so that they can finish their breakfast. Once they finish eating they all go their separate ways to look around the fifth level for Hisoka. Lily decides to follow Feitan.

“So, where are you headed?”

“To find Hisoka.”

“Well, I get that, but…” Lily trails off as she feels a familiar presence nearby. Feitan and Lily walk down a corridor that leads into a large open area, where people are huddled up close to each other. It looks as though this is where a bunch of people on the fifth level sleep, out in the open, on mats with thin blankets, most likely because they can’t afford more than this. The pair see Chrollo across the room walking away from Machi. Curious, the pair split up, Feitan takes Chrollo and Lily takes Machi. When Lily gets close enough to Machi, she calls out to her. Machi turns around, searching for the familiar voice she thought she heard. Lily waves to her as she pushes through the crowd. Once she finally catches up to Machi, Lily puts her hands on her knees and releases a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“Lily, what are you doing down here? Aren’t you supposed to be on the first level?” Machi raises her eyebrow as Lily stands up straight.

“Uh, well, yeah, but, you know. Hisoka is still at large. Soooo… of course I’m going to be down here to help look for him.” Lily cocks her head, wondering why Machi would ask that. Of course Lily was going to be looking for Hisoka, too. He killed Shalnark, her best friend, of course she’s going to look for him. She wants to be the first one to find him so that she can kill him.

“Oh. Well, I wanted to be the one to take Hisoka out because he left me in his bungee gum back at Heaven’s Arena after I sewed him up, but I just talked to Chrollo and he said it’s first come first serve.” Machi growled that last bit and Lily’s face went blank. She clenched her jaw and curled her hands into fists. That’s her reason for wanting to be the first to kill Hisoka? 

“That’s nothing Machi. You know Hisoka killed Shalnark. You know Shal and I have been best friends since we were kids. If anyone should get to kill Hisoka, it’s me.” Lily didn’t want to get into an argument over this with Machi. She wanted to be the first one, no, she _needed_ to be the first one to find Hisoka. Lily didn’t think that conversation was going anywhere so she left Machi and headed in the direction Feitan and Chrollo went.

As Lily rounds a corner, walking into a corridor, she spots Feitan speaking with Chrollo. The two of them sense Lily’s presence and look over to her, stopping their conversation.

“Don’t let me interrupt, boys.” Lily says with a smile on her face. She notices that Chrollo’s murderous aura abates when he sees Lily.

“Is fine.” Feitan says, turning toward Lily. He was about to walk over to her, but Chrollo beat him to it. Chrollo walks right up to Lily and pats her head twice. He keeps his hand on her head and stares at her for a few seconds.

“Lily… I’m glad you’re okay.” Feitan glares at Chrollo, a sense of jealousy arises out of him. It’s something he’s never felt before, so he goes to poke in between his eyebrows, wondering why he’s glaring. After fixing his face, Feitan joins Lily and Chrollo.

“Meeting tomorrow.” Feitan blurts out, getting Chrollo to break his eye contact with Lily and to drop his hand to his side.

“Yes, that’s what I was talking with Feitan about. I want to have a spider meeting tomorrow.” 

“Oh, well I don’t think I can join. I never did ask Tserriednich when I’m supposed to entertain him. I know I’m supposed to on Sundays, but I didn’t ask the other day. When I get back tonight I’ll ask.” Lily ooks at the floor and then the ceiling in contemplation, wondering what Tserriednich even wants her to do, seen as he’s so invested in working on his nen with Theta right now.

Chrollo narrows his eyes because he doesn’t like the fact that Lily has to spend time with that freak of a prince, “Fine.” He then softens his eyes as he gestures to Feitan, wondering if the two of them are going to be stuck together like glue this whole trip. “Are you two going to look for Hisoka together?” Growing up, if Lily wasn’t with Shalnark or Chrollo she was always with Feitan.

“Yes.” Feitan answered for the both of them.

Chrollo nodded at this. The fact that Feitan answered for the both of them meant that the both of them were definitely going to stick together the entire trip. At least that’s what Feitan wants. Lily is too focused on finding Hisoka that she doesn’t care if she’s with anybody, so long as she can find him first. The three say their goodbyes and Chrollo walks off. Lily and Feitan then walk in a separate direction to check the places that Feitan hadn’t checked yet on the fifth level.

  
  


_… Later on, night time …_

Lily and Feitan had looked everywhere and still no Hisoka. Looks like he’s either not on the fifth level or he’s in a really good disguise. Lily and Feitan part ways and Lily uses her doorway through space to get back to Prince Tserriednich’s room. She walks up to Tserriednich, seeing that his training session has ended for the night, and asks him when he wants her work. He says that he wants her second day to be tomorrow and that she should help with his nen training. Lily isn’t fond of the idea of helping to train him in nen, but she agrees nonetheless. After finding out her schedule, Lily uses her doorway through space to get to Chrollo.

“Hey, Chrollo.”

“Lily, can you come to the meeting tomorrow?”

“No. He wants me to help teach him nen,” Lily rolls her eyes, “so, you’ll have to move the meeting to the day after.” 

Chrollo narrows his eyes. Why is he making her teach him nen? Chrollo sighs, as it’s not his problem. “Alright, fine. I’ll see you the day after tomorrow, then.”


End file.
